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The green walls at The Lofts at Roosevelt Collection help soften the lobby's hard surfaces. "Putting plants together in an artistic way on a wa ll is st ill so new a nd unusua l t hat people a re fa scinated by it ," says Da niel Weinbach, pr incipa l-in- cha rge at t he Chicago la ndscape architecture firm Daniel Weinbach & Partners. "It creates a focus the same way a piece of art does. T he nat u ra l env ironment a lso tends to promote a sense of well-being." Weinbach's f ir m worked w it h T he Habit at Company to create an interior living wall as part of the overall landscape design for the develop- er's deluxe new rental building on the corner of Hubbard and K ingsbury Streets. In the ninth- floor amenity area of Hubbard Place Apartments, located across from the East Bank Club, one wall is covered in 342 tropical plants, which creates an inviting setting in an open space boasting a fireplace and groupings of couches and chairs. Hidden behind the wall is an irrigation and drainage system requiring little maintenance, says Steve Neumann, a plant specialist with LiveWall, a subsidiary of Hortech (a nursery in Spring Lake, Michigan), which installed the vertical garden last fall. The building's amenity level has f loor-to- ceiling windows, which create a well-lit environ- ment for optimum plant growth, Neumann adds. After the developer McCaffery Interests and Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds purchased The Lof t s at Roosevelt Collect ion, on Roosevelt Road in the South Loop, a complete redesign of the lobbies in the twin residential buildings in 2012 included the installation of large panels of living plants, says Pamela Austin, senior project manager of development. The 342 rental apart- ments and the ground-level retail stores face a U-shaped outdoor promenade with green space, a nd Aust in wa nted to extend t hat feeling of being surrounded by nature right into the lob- bies, she says, adding, "The lobbies also have a contemporary style with lots of hard surfaces, and the green walls soften that a little." AMLI Residential, known for its emphasis on sustainable design, decided to add a living wall t h is sum mer to t he a menit ies f loor of it s new A M L I R iver Nor t h proper t y, at Cla rk a nd Hubbard Streets, says Jennifer Wolf, senior vice president of development. The building, which opened last July with 409 rental units, offers other green and healthful features, including a smoke- free environment, fresh air pumped constantly into the ventilation system, and a garden of herbs on the outdoor deck that residents can snip for use in their home cooking, says Wolf, so the project makes perfect sense. "The living wall really adds to the intangible lifestyle factor of what people are looking for when they're choosing a building." MA continued from page 143 green illusions Art mimics nature in these residential installations. Last year, when Related Midwest started to revamp its recent acquisi- tion The Grant, an upscale 298-unit condo building overlooking Grant Park, the developer found that there wasn't enough light in the lobby to sustain a wall with live plants. Yet Related wanted to convey the message that residents were buying into a lifestyle centered on the park, explains Ann Thompson, the com- pany's SVP of architecture and design. With the help of an art consultant, Thompson came up with the next best thing: a work of art that evokes the feeling of being in the park. Last summer, a large-scale artwork by Aspen Mays titled Every Leaf on a Tree was installed in the building's lobby. Previously part of an exhibit at the MCA, the piece consists of 900 individual photographs of every leaf on a tree, each one attached only at the top two corners. "It's kinetic," says Thompson. "When there's a gust of wind through the lobby doors, the leaves flutter. It brings the exterior landscape into the lobby." Related Midwest is taking the same approach at its deluxe rental building OneEleven, opening this summer at 111 West Wacker Drive, whose lobby will feature a digital bouquet of flowers that stretches across nine large HD video screens. Artist Diana Thater created images of flowers that together look like a still photograph, but each is actually a loop of photos that produce subtle motion on the screens. "The clouds slowly pass behind the flowers, and there's a breeze that comes through and all the petals flutter," explains Thompson, who says the hefty cost ($110,000) will be worth it. "In these urban environments, the population really wants to be grounded in a landscape." 144 michiganavemag.com haute property