Quite a Team
from http://www.abqjournal.com/north/297501north_news04-01-08.htm
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
One Provides the Vision, the Other Creates Workable Designs in Custom Landscaping Business
_By Emily Van Cleve
For the Journal_
They’re a dream team, say landscape artist Tobi Wilde and her business partner Adam Steinberg.
Wilde comes up with unusual and challenging ideas that she tells to Steinberg, who owns Indigo Spirit Landscapes.
With pencil in hand, Steinberg translates her visions into workable designs.
“I’m thrilled to see my ideas take physical form,” said Wilde. “You can’t imagine how exciting it is for me. I say something, and Adam draws it.”
Steinberg founded Indigo Spirit Landscapes in the late 1980s, shortly after leaving his childhood home in New Hampshire and arriving in Santa Fe. He grew up building all kinds of things, but he especially loves ponds and other water features.
Feeling confused about some personal issues, he sought help from Wilde, who also works as a psychic and owned The Faerie Queen’s Wild Things Dress Up Boutique clothing store off Guadalupe Street. Wilde became his mentor, his life guide.
“When Tobi opened Café Oasis in the early 1990s, I helped her with the landscaping,” he said. “She designed the garden, and I installed it. We worked on the space through the years, until the restaurant closed in 2004. We also landscaped Tobi’s backyard together.”
Steinberg has done many landscaping projects around town without feedback from Wilde, including a water feature at the Gerald Peters Gallery and projects at 15 homes in Las Campanas. But he always relished her opinion whenever he got it.
“She would go with me to a finished project and tell me how I could have done this or that,” Steinberg said. “Eventually, I started asking her to look at projects before I began them.”
Three years ago, it became clear to Steinberg that he needed to formalize his business relationship with Wilde. He gave her a title, landscape design artist, and a salary.
“She adds the feminine to my work but also a touch of whimsy and magic,” he added. “I felt magic in her from the start.”
Wilde gets strong, visceral reactions to many pending projects. When she first looked at the backyard of an east side home last year, she said she got a headache.
“It looked as if a helicopter had dropped everything on the ground,” she recalled about the large number of rocks laying around the property in what appeared to be a haphazard fashion.
“The couple who owned the property was afraid to let their kids play in the backyard unsupervised. The sad thing was that somebody had landscaped the area about two years ago.”
The songs lyrics “don’t fence me in” could be Wilde’s design motto. She’s open to a certain amount of feedback from clients, but she wants people to have faith and let her have the opportunity to turn their biggest landscape design fantasy into reality.
The majority of Steinberg and Wilde’s work involves remodeling poorly designed yards.
“We capitalize on all of the site’s aspects and available materials,” Steinberg said. “Tobi’s vision often includes cutting below the existing ground level to take advantage of the power that varying levels and a high view area can provide. We also like to mix traditional materials to create a more interesting palette in the creation of paths, patios, walls and seating areas. Mosaics, swings, stone benches and earth spirals that rise 6 to 7 feet high and can be 20 feet across are some of the design solutions that we have created together.”
One of Indigo Spirit Landscapes’ upcoming commercial projects is landscaping the front of Camel Rock Casino, just north of Santa Fe. George Funds, Camel Rock Casino’s facilities manager, said Indigo Spirit was selected because of its expertise with water features.
“We could have gone with a larger company that offered pre-packaged stuff,” Funds explained. “What we like about Adam and Tobi is that they are concerned about the initial design work and customizing the design for us.”
Indigo Spirit Landscapes can be reached by calling 989-1388 or visiting www.indigospiritlandscapes.com.
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