The Bounty of the City
Inspired by the plant walls she installed on an Anthropologie boutique facade in Huntsville, Alabama, Robin Elmslie Osler worked in tandem with the nonprofit Urban Farming to create a Los Angeles vertical-farming project called Food Chain.
Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 3/1/2011 12:49:00 PM
Inspired by the plant walls she installed on an Anthropologie boutique facade in Huntsville, Alabama, Robin Elmslie Osler worked in tandem with the nonprofit Urban Farming to create a Los Angeles vertical-farming project called Food Chain. EOA/Elmslie Osler Architect has installed bright yellow powder-coated steel growing systems on walls at four locations to date: an elementary school, a low-income apartment building, a food bank, and an aid organization for the homeless. Now, Osler is donating her time to a campaign to expand the vertical cultivation of fruit, vegetables, and herbs to other U.S. cities-with harvesting and eating supplemented by nutritional and culinary education at community centers.
"The vision is that gardening walls will expand infinitely to create dense green paths, much like Boston's ‘emerald necklace' of parks," she says. Though officials in New York, Washington, and Las Vegas are biting, she admits that securing the necessary funds has been slow-going: "It's one day at a time, and we haven't given up." In the meantime, EOA is proposing food walls for paying projects.
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