Vertical Gardens – Wonderwall
Keeping It Green in an Increasingly Urban World
When Covid-19 hit, Jonathan Taylor’s phone kept ringing. His company makes living walls – vertical gardens set in durable panels and automatically watered. Folks stuck at home wanted to install the plant walls to improve air quality in their houses and patios, and to beautify their surroundings.
Taylor was already keen to expand his venture, Andromeda District. He wanted to open a showroom, separate from his Doral warehouse, a shop that could serve as a prototype for franchises. Living in Coral Gables, he looked closer to home. He opened his shop on U.S.1 in November 2020, offering vertical gardens as well as individual plants, planters, and other garden-center wares.
“We’re a biophilic design store. Our starting point for designing spaces is nature. And Coral Gables is aligned with nature and beauty. It invests in parks and recreation. Beauty’s even in its name: City Beautiful,” says Taylor, explaining his decision to open in the Gables.
Business has been blossoming since attracting area residents, home builders and even real estate pros looking to stage homes for sale, says Taylor. With a Starbucks next door and free parking, locals sometimes stop in with a coffee just to enjoy the greenery. “We make it an experience for the customer,” says Taylor, with staff that can explain different varieties of plants, the light and space they need, and how to care for them.
One frequent visitor: garden lover and realtor Jo-Ann Forster. Forster visited Taylor’s after driving by and noticing some plant holders there. “I’d looked for nearly two years for some really special pots and finally found them,” says Forster. She calls Taylor’s taste “beautiful,” recommending his living walls and plants to builders, designers, and friends.
Andromeda’s living walls grace many Florida homes and businesses, including the Marriott Stanton South Beach Hotel and high-rises built by the related group.
Andromeda District began humbly. Miami-born Taylor, son of a Honduran family, started out in 2010 by designing plant holders. He sourced them in Mexico and sold them to Florida retailers. Then, he saw the potential to supply landscape architects with living walls. He developed a panel-based system that automatically drips water into the pots, using a programmable timer. The panels were first made in Mexico from fiberglass, but since 2020 he’s had many manufactured in nearby Delray Beach using recycled plastic. “The panel made in the USA is more sustainable,” says Taylor.
Today, Andromeda’s living walls grace many Florida homes and businesses, including the Marriott Stanton South Beach hotel and high-rises built by The Related Group (costs typically run $99-$129 per square foot). But the company’s biggest installation resides in Tennessee: a seven-wall project spanning 4,300 square feet at the Joseph Hotel in Nashville, completed during the pandemic in July 2020.
Nashville is one of the cities Taylor hopes will host a franchise for Andromeda soon. He aims to open some 10 showrooms in U.S. southern cities over the next five years, tapping into growing awareness about climate, air quality, and how plants cleanse and beautify the environment. “As vertical gardens become more of a need,” he says, “green-wall installers will be seen as electricians or plumbers.”
Andromeda District
1132 S Dixie Hwy
(305) 718-3990
andromedadistrict.com