It’s a daily journey throughout the week that is most often seen as a means to a necessary end. But Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.’
I thought of this quote when I looked at what Sisson Landscaping had created at the new Wiehle Reston Metro Stop in Reston, Virginia. They took commuting to work or traveling by metro and made it a visual adventure of color and design; a journey where community and gathering spaces welcome you or cheerfully send you on your way. Working with the construction company, Comstock Builders, the folks at Sisson maintained the modern urban feel of the Metro Stop architechure, and while at the same time softening the verticle and horizonal lines using Crescent Garden’s Bowery, Daniel, Madison, Origami, and EyeAm planters. Throwing in just enough planters with a citron, wasabi, and deep pink color, Sisson was able to echo the Art Sculptures and provide an urban foil to the stark white, grey, and black.
Sisson continued the design brilliance by planting the softly rounded evergreen boxwoods in a majority of the planters providing a look of continuity and unity, then punctuating many of the planters with echoing colors of shades of pink, white, and purple. These cheerful displays greet you as you enter, walk to your arriving train, or as you sit with friends and enjoy a bite to eat while you await the next train.
Even the journey for the planters themselves was an easy trip. Because of Crescent Garden’s lightweight yet very study construction, Sisson was able to plant all 55 decorative containers at their own location and move them to the Metro Stop with just a little help from a hand-dolly. Keep in mind, this ease of delivery would not be possible for planters of this size if heavy cast-stone or clay planters were used. Plus, no messy clean-up at the installation site since the containers were already planted!
Because there is no need to carefully protect each planter for the truck ride to the installation site, placing the planters in the truck is simple since there is no worry of chipping or cracking with Crescent Garden’s resin planters. Sisson Landscaping has learned over the years about the added benefit of our double-walled planters in protecting the plant roots against extreme heat and cold, and the reliability of our planters to withstand even the harshest of their winter weather. (Crescent Garden’s 10 year warrantee against fading and cracking is trusted around the world.)
And sometimes, even with all the color options Crescent Garden offers, there will be a specific shade that Crescent doesn’t stock. But that didn’t stop Samantha Celich of Sisson Landscaping from providing Comstock Builders with a few of the deep pink planters that they requested. Because of how easily the matte textured finish of our Madison planter will accept spray paint, Samantha was able to apply a couple of coats of pink color to a white Madison planter, creating the exact look requested (with no-one the wiser that the planter hadn’t come in that deep pink color!)
Hats off to the folks at Sisson Landscaping and Comstock Builders for creating an environment where it’s the journey that matters, in the end.
Thank-you to Samantha Celich and Lori Van Zanten for providing photos and information on this landscape project.
