The demand for locally grown food is increasing, but how can an industry meet this need? We see community gardens sprouting up across many neighborhoods of densely populated cities, but what about the masses? Gotham Greens has figured it out. Since its founding in 2008 as an urban greenhouse business and beginning production in 2011, it has become a global innovator in the urban agriculture industry, especially as one of New York State’s top suppliers of high-quality, pesticide-free vegetables and herbs.

The company opened its second of three greenhouses in New York City atop the Whole Foods Market in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Co-founder Viraj Puri explained how their operations worked to the Huffington Post:

“This facility uses the hydroponic technique, meaning plants receive nutrients from their water supply and are grown without soil — a technique well-suited to urban agriculture where arable land and high-quality soil are scarce… Since the crops are sloped at a gentle angle, all irrigation water is reused…It’s actually the most water-efficient form of agriculture in the world because we’re recycling all of our water… As droughts become a more consistent issue, especially in places where our food comes from, I think you’ll start to see more applications of this type of technology.”

As Americans are becoming more health-conscious, the demand for higher-quality foods is greater, which is why consumers are willing to pay more for better quality. For this reason Puri believes “urban agriculture will only get bigger, and will only complement and help our food system get more sustainable.”

Click to learn more about Gotham Greens and its initiatives.

From left to right: co-founders Viraj Puri and Eric Haley with Chief Agriculture Officer Jennifer Nelkin Frymark.

Hotel-Hugo Exterior – Hotel-Hugo website.

A luxury boutique property, Hotel Hugo is the product of a partnership between real estate developer Matthew Moinian and Fortuna Realty Group, LLC. Located in Hudson Square, the hotel’s appeal lies with its close proximity to shopping and cultural destinations offered by Soho, TriBeca and the West Village. Hotel Hugo is 20 stories high and features 122 guest rooms, including two must-stay top-floor suites and a must-see rooftop lounge that offers a 360-degree view of New York City.

Architect Marcello Pozzi, based in Beverly Hills, Ca, served as the project’s architect and designer. Beginning with the exterior, he implemented a sleek modern finish with exposed concrete that mimics the neighborhood’s 20th century, industrial-style warehouses. The interior includes 104 rooms with king-size beds and 18 rooms with two double beds; the two top-floor suites allow a double room to connect with a king room. 

Hotel-Hugo Guest Room – Hotel Design Magazine.

With custom-made Italian furnishings in each room, Pozzi offers a sophisticated residential-like design to ensure guests feel right at home. All rooms come with a great view, and guests can choose to view the Hudson River or the downtown skyline.

For the hotel’s entrance, Pozzi and his team installed a 17-foot glass façade that leads into a two-story lobby where guests are greeted by an environmentally friendly green wall behind the check-in desk. Vertical gardens can be found throughout the ground floor leading into the restaurant’s private dining room, which has an expansive skylight and uber amounts of gorgeous foliage. 

Hotel-Hugo Front Desk – Hotel Design Magazine.

In keeping with the thematic design and feel of the project, Pozzi used authentic woodwork by Italian craftsman throughout the hotel’s common areas and guest rooms, making this stylish get-away well-suited for vivacious city vacays or booming Manhattan business trips.

To learn more information about the new Hotel Hugo and Pozzi’s design inspiration, read the full article about the project on Hotel Design magazine’s website by clicking here.

After finding documentation connecting the container packets to Benary, the company regained possession of the seeds. The mere fact the seeds were recovered from the site of the most historic shipwreck in modern history was astounding enough to the Benary team, but then came another shocking and almost impossible discovery. Gudrun Rufeger, a seed technology specialist, brought up the idea of germinating the seed to see if it was still viable. Given the fact that the container was kept at low temperatures of 32-35 F and high pressure of 5,557 psi at 12,500 feet below sea level, the seeds were preserved almost cryogenically.

Gudrun Rufeger analyzing Titanic Begonia liners.

Rufeger, along with two professors from the University of Hoenheim, based in Stuttgart, Germany, Karl Schmid and Albrecht Melchinger, successfully grew out the begonia seeds in 406-count plug trays and 24-count, 84-size liners, another astounding feat in this intriguing horticulture story! With sales beginning on April 14 of this year, the 102nd anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking, the plant was named the “Titanic Begonia,” according to Benary co-managing director Matthias Redlefsen. As for quantities and prices, Matthias joked, “Very low, and very high!”

This one-of-a-kind recovery story does not come often for the horticulture industry, but it surely is one worth publicizing! Congrats to Ernst Benary and its [kind of] new ‘Titanic’ Begonias!

Ernst Benary – ‘Titanic’ Begonia

For interior designers, the competition for securing new interior design projects as well as having completed projects published in print and online is steep. With residential, commercial and hospitality building and renovation on the rise, active interior designers, design firms and design-oriented contractors vie for jobs among the proliferated competition. Landing new projects is almost always foundational upon having a vast portfolio of relatable design work and a trusted reputation that stems from publicity.

Rave reviews, being published, social media interaction, design awards, and design-event participation all add up to a comprehensive toolkit that becomes a designer’s most valuable marketing asset- one that leads to creating a trusted brand for a designer or design firm. At Eberly & Collard Public Relations, we help our interior design-based clients reap new business and sales by generating published articles and feature stories that showcase their services, capabilities and design expertise.

Our synergistic backgrounds in both design and design-oriented media relations make our team a natural fit for taking clients from static and reactive marketing to proactive integrated marketing and results-oriented public / media relations.

We recently secured a feature article and photo spread for our client, Knotting Hill Interiors, in the April 2014 national print issue of Romantic Homes. The magazine showcased the CEO and principal designer Kimberly Grigg’s own home, making this a much more personal experience for readers.

Our team attained and facilitated an editorial interview for Kimberly and assisted the editor with writing portions of the design case-study, which revealed great ideas from Kimberly for bringing charm and elegance with a touch of southern flair into the home of the featured homeowner. Of course, having an artistic client such as Kimberly, whose design skills and knowledge are parallel to none, makes our media relations campaigns for her a ton of fun as well.

Read and view the entire feature via the below slideshow.

As the economy steadily improves, more consumers and businesses are investing in landscaping. Immediately, we may think of office buildings or residential homes, but here we find a cemetery in Minneapolis, Minn. that sought an update. Ron Gjerde, president of the Lakewood Cemetery Association, stated that the association was worried about cemeteries “retaining relevancy” with the increase of cremations in recent years. “Here, future families can come and learn about you, learn who you are…We encourage people to use a cemetery for remembrance,” he says.

During the design and reconstruction of the Lakewood Cemetery, one question was kept at the forefront of the involved parties’ minds: “How do we connect the community and do future burials that respect modern ideals of death and dying?” One does not often think of cemetery or mausoleum grounds as personable to visitors. To alter this way of thinking, the premises were renovated into an “unabashedly contemporary” space under the collaborative efforts of the Boston-based landscape architecture office Halvorson Design Partnership and the Minneapolis-based architecture firm HGA.

The new facility exquisitely intertwines the indoor and outdoor spaces, visually and physically, while still maintaining the historic elements of the property, such as the chapel built in 1909, garden crypts of the 1960s and the mausoleum of 1967. New additions included a green roof, reflecting pool, knot garden, refinished gathering space, and another mausoleum with a reception center.

From both functional and aesthetic standpoints, the architecture and landscape create a place where one can reflect on passed loved ones in peace. Click through the photo gallery to view the Lakewood Cemetery and Mausoleum.

Photo Credit: Landscape Architecture magazine / Paul Crosby

Project Credits:

Landscape Architecture: Halvorson Design Partnership, Boston
Architecture: HGA architects & Engineers, Minneapolis
Civil & Structural Engineering: HGA architects & Engineers, Minneapolis
Cemetery Planning Consultant: Elizabeth Vizza Consulting, Brookline, Mass.
Fountain Design: Commercial Aquatic Engineering, Eden Prairie, Minn.
Horticultural Soil Scientist: Pine & Swallow Environmental Groton, Massachusetts.
Mausoleum Consultant: Carrier Mausoleums Construction, Ville Saint-Laurent, Quebec.
Owner’s Representative: Nelson, Tietz & Hoye, Minneapolis.
General Contractor: M.A. Mortenson Company, Minneapolis.
Landscape Contractors: Aloha Landscaping, Mendota Heights, Minn.; Sterling Arbor, New Germany, Minn.

The ECPR team is excited to share we have partnered with Julia Molloy, founder of Molloy Management Group, for the Business of Luxury Design (BOLD) Summit. Formerly known as the Business of Design (BOD) Conference, the annual event’s new approach to luxury design education and networking is set to take place Aug. 28-29, 2014, at the Wynn hotel, Las Vegas.

The BOLD Summit is designed to provide an exclusive group of elite interior designers, architects, design-build professionals, landscape designers and architects, and other luxury design service-providers with resourceful information and networking opportunities to enrich their business operations and success in a ground-breaking and renewed fashion.

As the BOLD Summit’s official public relations firm, we will be working diligently to promote the event to target audiences, by way of strategic traditional and social media campaigns. This includes press releases with up-to-date information about the BOLD Summit as well as regular updates on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and blog channels.

Serving also as a business partner and sponsor, our team’s role involves collaborating with Julia and the other partners to help shape the event’s schedule, content and overall experience for attendees, sponsors and media members.

Our team of experts will also be working closely with our good friend Julia on securing corporate and media sponsors. Potential corporate sponsors include furniture manufacturers and showrooms, kitchen and bath appliance manufacturers, home furnishings retailers, design and market centers, among others. Possible media sponsors include both high-end trade and consumer shelter publications.

The two-day event has been created specifically for business owners in the design field whose professional knowledge has outgrown other industry events, having found them to be too basic or cursory for their particular needs as luxury service providers. As the event’s new host, Julia Molloy brings over 20 years of business operations management experience to BOLD’s rebranded conference.

The BOLD Summit’s intense course aims to provide a dynamic and collaborative learning experience for design professionals to help build personal wealth and company success. Event presenters will enlighten attendees on critical business topics such as developing profit centers, luxury brand development, wealth development, and marketing in the new age of design. Attendees will participate in actionable training workshops with technical tools and financial analysis for their firms.

A very important benefit of attendance, BOLD will also feature revolutionary resources like worksheets and business planning documents that will be available for download and completed in real-time during the conference as well as a take-away DVD of the presentations.

This year’s BOLD Summit will feature a selection of seminars with top industry leaders and icons:

• Julia Molloy, Molloy Management Group and BOLD Summit host
• Mike Peterson, publisher of Luxe Interiors + Design South Florida magazine
• Christopher Kennedy, luxury interior designer and furniture line designer
• Frank Mastronuzzi, MBA, CPA and former chief financial officer of Michael Smith, Inc.
• Chris Ramey, founder of the Home Trust and the Luxury Marketing Council
• Kim Kuhteubl, authentic branding expert
• Lloyd Princeton, founder of Design Management Company
• Our own Don Eberly and Jeff Collard, co-owners of Eberly & Collard Public Relations

The event is a bold new and exciting endeavor for our staff, and, collectively, our firm couldn’t be more inspired about being a business partner, sponsor, publicist, supporter, and enthusiast. For more information about the BOLD Summit, visit www.businessofluxurydesign.com.

Interested in attending, editorially covering or sponsoring BOLD Summit? Media members, luxury furniture / appliance manufacturers, showroom owners / managers, design center marketing directors, and others desiring to know more about media or corporate sponsorship opportunities, contact us at 404-574-2900.