Thermally modified wood is even better than ipe? – Here’s why

We’re really impressed with the thermally modified ash pavers we just installed at the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square and 1133 Avenue of the Americas.

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Pergola Design

Serving as a transition between interior space and outdoor landscape, a freestanding pergola serves as a focal point, centering the space and drawing attention to the best features the garden has to offer. When properly implemented, a pergola performs double duty, extending the living space while defining a distinct outdoor space.

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Riverside Drive

Often times, the smallest of spaces prove to be the largest design challenge. Clients desire functional spaces which exude the lush, organic beauty they glimpse at spaces which tend to garner more of the press attention, which usually suggests they are greater in scale. In order for form and function to be joined in spiritual union, we can look to the context of the space in order to garner inspiration.
Introducing curved containers into the garden not only minimizes the angular impact of the space and its surrounding vertical neighbors, but borrows from the ebb and flow of the river passing by to the west. The containers vary in height so as to provide an accented and unimpeded view from the inside to the outside. The lush plantings reflect some of the leafy residents of nearby Riverside Park as well as reinforcing the movement of the Hudson as the grasses sway in the breezes high above the street.

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Meatpacking District | Terrace

Located in New York’s Meatpacking district and adjacent to the High Line, this 3000 SF of exterior space offered a unique design opportunity. By combining two apartments, the clients created a wealth of exterior space, but it was a non-contiguous and unharmonious space. Blondie’s designers, Tina Dituri and Charles Casanova, sought to design spacious living and entertaining areas, while working around the confines of existing structural elements. On the list of the client’s must haves, were a spa area, a kitchen and a considerable amount of seating, without the added burden of storage. To accomplish the seating, 84 linear feet of deep concrete benches were custom fabricated and craned up to the site. Seat backs were angled and constructed of Ipe. This created seamless seating areas almost everywhere in the garden. The spa was created with multiple levels of steps that also act as benches. They surround the spa in what terminates at the top with spa level seating, creating an area that can be intimate, or also be the setting for a gathering. There is a shower just hidden from view adjacent to the spa. In the spa area, as well as wrapping to the long South seating area, a wall of lateral ipe fascia leads the eye from one side of the garden to the other. The crowning glory of the garden is a Jaume Plensa sculpture of a seated figure. It is placed reverently in a corner looking back toward the house. It is surrounded by upright Karl Foerster grasses, Vanderwolf Pine, Miscanthus, and various flowering perennials which make up the lovely frame for the entire garden.

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