Fernando Wong has long been impressed with Palm Beach because of its residents’ history of interest in horticulture and landscaping.
“They take their landscapes very seriously,” said Wong, 38, who started his own landscape-design firm nine years ago in Miami Beach. ”It’s a world-class place for landscape design.”
Wong and partner Tim Johnson, who oversees the business side of Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, recently opened a satellite office on Worth Avenue, to better handle the firm’s growing roster of clients around town, in North Palm Beach and on Jupiter Island.
Wong’s first job on the island came about three years ago, after local decorator Lillian Fernandez saw an ad for his firm, featuring a photograph of a Miami project, in a design magazine.
The look of the garden in the photograph struck Fernandez as “something new and different for Palm Beach,” the decorator said. After meeting him in Miami and seeing a few of his projects with her clients for an oceanfront house, Fernandez was sold on Wong’s aesthetic and recommended him for the job.
“What I appreciate about Fernando is his artistic sensibility and his ability to listen to what clients want,” she said. “He is also a quick study, able to conceive the landscape plan and sketch it out on the spot, and then install it without many changes. Most clients don’t like surprises. There are no surprises with Fernando. His designs are thorough, complete and workable.”
Fernandez has introduced Wong to several clients and has hired him to do work at her own home.
“Lillian Fernandez really opened the doors for us in Palm Beach,” said Johnson.
The firm is currently involved in about a dozen projects on the island and in the surrounding area. Wong also is participating in the upcoming Red Cross Show House.
Another Palm Beach decorator, Leta Austin Foster, also was instrumental in bringing Wong to the attention of Palm Beach clients. The two met in 2011 at a DCOTA event, hit it off and began working on projects together, with Foster recommending the landscape designer to her clients.
“That’s why we opened the office here,” said Johnson, who worked out of Foster’s Via Mizner office with Wong for a short time before they found a space of their own in December.
Two people work full time in Palm Beach. A staff of eight works out of Wong’s Miami Beach headquarters. Wong and Johnson plan to spend half their time working out of the island office.
On the island, the firm’s primary focus is on residential projects. Wong tailors each garden design to the architectural style of the house, as well as to the tastes and lifestyles of clients.
“I like to think of a garden as series of rooms,” he said, explaining that the style of a landscape design can range from traditional to contemporary. Scale, proportion and layering are essential ingredients in gardens, Wong said.
“I think about how the design will age,” he said.
Thus, he advocates the use of native plants because they will do better over time. “I don’t like the idea of a client having to replace plants every year.”
That idea was fully developed when Wong was hired by Karen Eggers to design the landscape at a new North End house. Eggers wished to create a so-called green home, certified according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.
Introduced to Wong through her builder, Tim Givens, Eggers was pleased with the landscape designer’s ideas and his enthusiasm for the project.
“Fernando understood the aesthetic of the house, which is Art Deco, and had a thorough knowledge of drought-resistant plants,” she said. Eggers’ home, completed last fall, received its platinum LEED certification in December. It is the only house in town that is LEED certified.
For more information about Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design, call 515-0213 or visit fernandowongold.com.
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