ONE PLUS ONE EQUALS MORE
Douglas Fanning went into business as Dyad, a studio specializing in furniture, lighting, and complex metalwork, in 1998. Now, the newly licensed architect has completed his creative vision by establishing an offshoot, Douglas Fanning Architecture. "I'd been developing this idea, of having two studios, for 10 years," he says. The recession nudged him into the broader area of design-build as a way to provide enough work to keep both facets of practice busy. "When one is slow, the other's not," he explains.
A New York roof garden, his first, epitomizes the symbiosis between concept and implementation while adding 200 square feet of outdoor space to a top-story apartment in a town house. To partially enclose and shade the terrace, he used long planters held aloft, in parallel rows, by an innovative framework. This armature was welded together from steel I beams, cut down the center into T shapes, and the planters, plain cedar boxes, contain bamboo, other grasses, herbs, flowers, and vegetables. They're watered with the assistance of a telescoping ladder and a spray wand. --Meghan Edwards
Clockwise from top left: Custom cedar planters form a canopy for a New York roof terrace by Douglas Fanning Architecture and its affiliate, Dyad. Douglas Fanning screwing a planter to an armature built from steel I beams that have been torch-cut in half. Plants and sea grasses. Removable cedar planks over existing concrete pavers over existing concrete pavers. A built-in bench, also cedar. Brick dating to an earlier renovation of the 19th-century town house. The armature's 11-foot height.