The Square is a celebrated dining destination created by two of Washington D.C.’s most renowned chefs. This new food hall has become a vibrant hub for global cuisine in the nation’s capital. Upon entering, visitors are welcomed by lush foliage covering the vertical surfaces of the interior. Watson Salembier consulted with the Client, advising on the concept design and planting palette of ficus, philodendron, and hedera that cascaded across the walls, basking in the dappled sunlight that filters through the skylights above.

The design was inspired by Dan Kiley’s Ford Foundation. The Ford Foundation building offers New Yorker’s a tropical landscape: a lush 10,000 square foot garden at the base of a towering atrium. The garden was conceived and executed by the great mid-century landscape architect Dan Kiley. Kiley’s extensive and experimental planting scheme included 40 trees, 1,000 shrubs and over 22,000 vines and groundcover plants.

The concept design was inspired by the vertical arrangement of vegetation in a forest ecosystem, which receives limited light comparable to an interior planted environment. Biodiversity is dependent upon different vegetative layers in the forest - subterranean, understory, midstory, and canopy layers with each layer offering a unique set of features. Within these layers microcosms composed of miniature ecosystems are formed.

This type of vertical complexity and the miniature ecosystems it affords, are the inspiration for the design of the ISQ Food Court Atrium. Using multiple species maximizes beneficial exchange of nutrients and makes the overall landscape healthier and more resilient. Promoting biodiversity by using many different plant species will create an amazing palette of greens that will bring depth and interest to the Atrium environment year around.