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URBAN update

WWW.URBAN planters .COMfor a greener world

A YEAR OF MAJOR MILESTONES FOR URBAN’S NETWORK

PAGE 7Accolade Wines Jury’s Inn Cheltenham Microsoft

PAGE 3-6Case Study: Central Square

PAGE 2The Value of Plants Record Group Services Ltd ExxonMobil

PAGE 1Major Milestones EFIG Awards

PAGE 6Inspired Thinking Group Leeds University OISOI

ISSUE 36

This year, we are celebrating some impressive milestones across our franchise network.

We pride ourselves on operating a thriving network of franchises, giving all of our branches the right balance of support and independence to allow them to grow a strong and trusted local business with the resources of an international operation.

Altogether, nine of our franchises are marking 20- or 10-year anniversaries. Cheshire, Leicestershire and Reading have all been running for 20 years, while York, Stockport, Manchester, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Sussex have been part of the Urban Planters family for a decade.

Clocking up two decades of business prosperity and development is no mean feat, so we asked our three 20-year veterans about their experiences running an Urban Planters franchise.

“Joining Urban Planters 20 years ago was certainly the right thing for us to do, and it has been great to watch our business grow over the years,” reflects Fergus Belcher, who owns Urban Planters Reading with his wife Clair.

“Our ability to respond quickly to customer requirements and provide a local and personal service, yet with the backup and standards of a national company has been the key to our success.”

Urban Planters Leicestershire’s Ary and Sheena Saaman, say their 20 years with Urban Planters has taught them diverse business skills:

“Our aim has always been to be THE interior landscaping company of the LE and CV postcodes, providing the best possible products and service at the very best prices, with a focus on quality.

“The business is extremely varied and challenging, with fortunately more ups than downs, and has given us the opportunity to learn a variety of skills.

“We are really happy we took on the challenge of joining the Urban Franchise Network.“

Brendan Wilson, owner of the Cheshire franchise reflects:

“It has been an invaluable experience watching our franchise grow and develop over the past 20 years. Equally, Urban Planters as a whole has evolved and thrived over this period as the interior landscaping industry has become an essential component of healthy, productive workplaces.”

EFIG AWARDS 2017: URBAN PLANTERS WIN 12 INDUSTRY AWARDSIt was another vintage year for Urban Planters at our national industry awards, with our franchisees and national sales team walking away with armfuls of Bronze, Silver and Gold Leaf efig awards. Some of our schemes are featured in this newsletter and the previous edition. Congratulations everyone!

PAGE 6Las Iguanas Mott MacDonald

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TIME TO WISE UP TO THE VALUE OF

PLANTS Have you ever thought of plants as being an important contributor to workplace productivity and the bottom line? Believe it or not, plants bring real value and business benefits to the workplace which can outweigh any cost or labour.

Plants are important to indoor working environments in many ways, but most particularly in terms of improving indoor air quality and helping the workforce to stay healthy, happy and productive.

Urban Planters have launched a new campaign called ‘The Value of Plants’, to show how plants are an important part of any indoor workplace.

As Urban Planters Director Alan Page explains:

“Like all interior landscapers, we see day in, day out how office plants make a noticeable difference to workplace productivity and wellbeing, but it’s not always something a business thinks of when considering plants, so we wanted to spread the word.

“Using a series of infographics, we have gathered a range of fascinating facts about the value of plants from a wide range of studies to get people thinking about plants in terms of a business benefit.”

Keep an eye on our social media pages for #valueofplants or check out our website to discover more.

The rich and varied planting at ExxonMobil’s 25-year-old office building in Leatherhead has been under the care of Urban Planters Oxford for almost ten years and this decade of careful nurturing won recognition at this year’s efig awards.

The centrepiece, a vast atrium, is looked upon by many of the building’s office spaces and also houses a busy restaurant and a range of retail, refreshment and seating areas.

There is a wide range of plant varieties in the atrium, including large trees, climbers, succulents and individual planters housing a range of other specimens, all of which require different levels of care and watering.

MAINTAINING A THRIVING ATRIUM AT EXXON

NATURE SITS QUIETLY IN NEW OFFICE SPACEWhen Record Group Services Ltd moved into new offices in Windsor, they called on Urban Planters Marlow to design a fresh and interesting scheme which would bring life to the workspace without dominating it.

In the main office, plants in subtle but smart anthracite containers were positioned so they could be seen from all parts of the office.

Corridors were transformed into welcoming walkways using repeated patterns of leafy plant varieties to create simple but striking features.

Each meeting room had a plant scheme bespoke to the various interiors. Ficus microcarpa ‘Ginseng’ provide interest and a delicate, unobtrusive shape, perfect for these rooms.

Finally, in the reception, the seasonal planting in moss both brings colour and echoes the woodland feel from the silver birch trees.

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How two-and-a-half years of planning, detailed consultation and fresh thinking created an award-winning planting scheme in central Leeds

A meticulously-designed planting scheme for a landmark £53 million office and leisure complex in central Leeds has created a space where nature feels integral to the structure.

Central Square is a striking piece of architecture which has been awarded a BREAMM Outstanding accreditation. To help the building achieve this, the planting scheme needed to contribute to this sustainable status, echoing the focus on natural resources and improving the air quality within the building as much as possible.

A LONG -TERM VISIONIn short, the planting scheme for this building needed to be as ambitious as the building itself.

In order to achieve this, Urban Planters was involved during the design development work of the construction project to act as consultants and guide on detailed design elements to ensure the living architecture was as successful as the structure and architecture of the building.

As Managing Director Thomas Palfreyman explains, “By being involved at the conceptual stage of the project we were able to plan and work with the project team to ensure the plants have everything they need to flourish within the space created.

“The client recognised the importance of including building features to suit the planting, as opposed to the other way around. This meant we had more scope to create an exceptional planting scheme.”

CASE STUDY: CENTRAL SQUARE

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A THRIVING ENVIRONMENTWorking closely with the main building contractor, Urban Planters arranged for the underfloor heating to avoid the places where plants would be placed.

We also selected lighting above living walls and trees which suited the plants’ lighting requirements and ensured the temperature inside the building never dropped below 10 degrees.

As a result, we were able to create a planting scheme which feels integral to the building.

With walls wrapped in planting, interior and exterior trees set into the ground and bright, exotic flowering plants in planters with integrated seating, the greenery flows around the building, blurring the lines between indoors and out.

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CASE STUDY: CENTRAL SQUARE

Some seven living walls feature in this scheme. Varying in size, they span storeys, wrap around the corners of walls in the main areas and create echoes of the same designs in smaller green walls around the building.

The centrepiece to the scheme is a large green wall, which flows from the inside to the outside of the building, divided only by a glass pane. Careful selection of the interior and exterior walls’ planting allowed the design of the walls to look identical, creating the illusion of one green wall, flowing uninterrupted from inside to outside.

The walls have had a significant impact on not only the look and feel of the building but also the air quality: humidity levels have noticeably increased and the planting will be working constantly to keep the indoor air fresher and cleaner.

SWEEPING WALLS

OF GREEN

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URBAN FORESTAnother key feature of the planting scheme is the use of trees both inside and outside the building.

Inside the vast seven-storey atrium at the entrance, five large bespoke planters with natural wood seating house Ficus microcarpa ‘Nitida’ and dense underplanting, which offers seasonal colour and effective air cleaning.

Outside, Carpinus betulus trees were planted into large pits to accommodate growing roots as they establish over time. Strata cells were built to house the soil and support the weight of the trees.

“We would like to say a big ‘well done’ to Urban Planters for winning a Gold Leaf award in the 2017 eFig awards for their work on our beautiful live walls.” Central Square Management.

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CELEBRATING THE MODERN AND NODDING TO THE PASTBeing situated in the old Dunlop tyre factory in Birmingham, technology marketing business Inspired Thinking Group was keen to strike a balance between creating a modern office space which also paid deference to the building’s prestigious industrial past.

To help the company achieve this look and feel, Urban Planters Birmingham created a planting scheme using materials that wouldn’t have gone amiss when the site was used for manufacturing rubber that subsequently reached the four corners of the globe.

Brushed stainless steel planters reference the building’s industrial past, while tall Kentia palms and Dracaena marginata provide greenery, height and interest to the populated areas and improve the workplace’s indoor environment.

When Leeds University asked Urban Planters to design a garden for the ninth-floor atrium at its medical faculty, we decided to draw inspiration from medicine itself to reflect the setting.

We created a cluster of large, metal molecular cell-shaped beds across the space, planting each one in varying shades and textures of green moss and other plants used in medicine.

The scheme’s design ensures the garden offers a themed, tranquil view to students walking around the garden not only on the same floor, but also from the three floors above, which also look down on the space.

“Our biggest challenge was getting the 63 pallets, each with 40 bags of compost, into the atrium space via a window and ensuring we distributed the soil carefully due to weight restrictions,” explains Urban Planters’ Thomas Palfreyman, who designed the scheme. “It took us 10 days to install but we are really pleased with the final result.”

PLANT CELLS FOR MEDICAL FACULTY ROOF GARDEN

EXOTIC PLANTING FOR ORIENTAL FOOD HAVENThe multi-faceted OISOI gathers a high-end restaurant, a café and patisserie, a cocktail bar and an artisan food market under one roof at its slick premises in central Sheffield.

The open plan space needed planting to mark the different areas. ‘Small trailing plants were placed on shelves and bright turquoise planters with Taxus cuspidata multiballs entice customers in at the entrance.

To achieve this, Urban Planters South Yorkshire planted troughs in a range of orchids to create a subtle and natural barrier between areas, positioned a mixture of small and trailing plants on shelves between vintage tea jars and planted balls of Taxus cuspidata multiballs in bright turquoise ceramic pots at the entrance, to entice customers in.

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NEW PALATE OF PLANTING FOR GLOBAL WINE MERCHANTInternational wine company, Accolade Wines had a specific vision for their new planting scheme at their Avonmouth offices.

While they wanted the planting to nod towards a ‘wine country’ feel, they were keen to steer clear of more obvious features, such as wine barrel planters and lean more towards a look which would reflect the modern workspace.

Urban Planters West Country met this brief by selecting aged lead planters with a cork-top dressing.

A range of live and replica planting was used, with a four-metre replica olive tree creating a statement centrepiece to the scheme.

When Microsoft opened up two new floors in its central London offices, it wanted to bring life to the office space with planting.

Two large triangular beds on the seventh floor were filled with dense, leafy planting and 12 floor-standing displays in uniform grey, textured containers were planted with lush greenery and positioned around the office space.

A series of several vertical wire grids overlooking the vast atrium space required a well-designed planting display which would use the structures to full effect. This was achieved using planters in a mixture of sizes and materials and a variety of plant specimens.

FRESH PLANTING FOR SOFTWARE GIANT

CELEBRATING THE MODERN AND NODDING TO THE PAST

TRADITIONAL FESTIVE CHEER FOR CHELTENHAM HOTELJurys Inn Cheltenham asked Urban Planters West country to create a replica Christmas installation that would look festive and welcoming, be themed throughout the hotel and work within their budget.

The spaces around the hotel lent themselves to having garlands, wreaths, vases and trees, helping the scheme to flow from area to area. We even incorporated small trees in planters on wheels so they could be used for functions in various places, as required.

Urban Planters arrived at 8am and, by 4pm, Christmas had arrived! The staff and guests alike enjoyed watching as we transformed each area of the hotel.

The team worked around the guests, first doing areas that were quieter and waiting until after lunch to carry out the working at height tasks in the hotel reception.

A fresh scheme in new offices in Sheffield have shown how plant containers can be true multitaskers.

Integrated seating and cupboards, with plants thoughtfully positioned into the bespoke units, use limited space to full effect for client Mott MacDonald’s new state-of-the-art premises.

There are also specially-designed troughs which fit exactly on top of, and perfectly match, the filing cabinets.

Uniform planting using just two plant types, Sansevieria and Aglaonema, brings a stylish simplicity to the scheme.

BESPOKE PLANTERS ARE SPACE SAVERS AND DESIGN MARVELS

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CEILING GREENERY BRINGS RAINFOREST FEEL TO LAS IGUANASFor a feeling of true immersion in nature, plants dangling from the ceiling must come close. Las Iguanas restaurant in Bournemouth has done just that, with 400 replica plants suspended from the ceiling, close to diners’ heads, in order to create a rainforest feel from above.

Further green features around the restaurant include green walls, planted with a single type of replica plant to create a clean and simple background, light-up signage and live plants in troughs to frame and enclose the outside eating area.

This planting scheme has been echoed around other Las Iguanas restaurants around the country, including sites in Braintree and central Birmingham.