The story of Earth Inc. began with
three young men armed with three different design sensibilities. Kennedy McRae, James Dale and Joel Loblaw,
now all in their early 40s, are the three founding partners of the landscape design firm, which first began
doing business in 1997.
“We all met at another firm,”
said McRae. “We were kind of the design team in sales so we just decided ‘Why don’t we just do this on our
own?’ Because we love design and it felt like we weren’t being heard properly.”
Fast forward to 2011 and the
three men, all educated in landscape architecture, no longer have an issue having their voices heard. In
fact, they are running the show.
“We do everything,” McRae said
proudly. “We design it, run it, construct it and organize it.”
According to their website,
Earth Inc. “converts ordinary gardens into dazzling works of imagination.” And judging from their gorgeous
online photo gallery, this appears to indeed be the case. The company specializes in residential yards, both
front and back. They have designed and built over 400 garden spaces primarily in the Greater Toronto Area but
have branched out to places like Ottawa, Collingwood and even Upstate New York.
Whether they’re designing wooden
decks, water features, fire pits or even literally sinking a garden, McRae, Dale and Loblaw all bring
something unique to the design table. With each partner having a distinct sense of style, there is rarely a
boring moment in the design room and the final product is always far from ordinary.
According to McRae, his personal
style lies in modern, avant-garde design while Dale, a history major in his university days, adheres to a
more formal and traditional style.
Meanwhile Loblaw, leans more
towards a contemporary and timeless design with clean lines. One might think three divergent styles could
lead to conflict and infighting but this couldn’t be further from the truth. It turns out that variety really
is the spice of life.
“The greatest thing about our
company is there’s more than one person driving the design,” said McRae. “So if that style particularly suits
James or Joel better, then they’re the one who’s going to run with it.”
“There’s more than one owner
driving the look of the company’s style and there’s a love of different styles from each of us. And they’re
pretty powerful,” he continued.
The company, which operates out
of Toronto, has a total of eight people working in their offices with an additional 20 bodies on their
construction team. From meeting with clients to discuss what they envision for their outdoor space to the
design and construction phases, Earth Inc. is right there with their clients every step of the
way.
The field of modern landscape
design, according to McRae, only started taking off about 20 years ago. With housing becoming more and more
modern, it’s only fitting that the gardens undergo some modernization as well.
“We don’t not want to do them,”
McRae said of more formal gardens. “We love them. It’s just when the house architecture dictates the style,
then that’s one thing. And then the client says ‘We want this in keeping with the house’ and we say ‘OK,
that’s fine.’”
While the clients are ultimately
the ones with the final say on how their gardens should look, Earth Inc. is the driving force behind the
design plan for the space. What the clients typically do provide are the parameters. For example, they’ll
request a shed or a deck. Or they’ll indicate they want more privacy here or more trees there. But once the
parameters are set, it’s up to Earth Inc. to implement the design process.
“They don’t design it,” McRae
said of their clients. “We don’t have clients that come to us saying ‘This is what I want’ where they’re just
kind of using us as technicians to draw it up for them. That typically doesn’t ever
happen.”
For McRae, having a design
concept approved never gets old, especially when they weren’t entirely convinced they would get the go-ahead
when they initially drew them up.
“The clients give us the free
range to have fun and do it,” he said. “When the day comes and they say ‘OK let’s do this,’ I don’t think it
gets old that we’re just completely blown away that they’re going to do this idea that you came up with. It’s
so rewarding… Sometimes you go in with the craziest idea thinking they’re never going to accept this but they
say ‘Let’s do it.’ Wow!”
McRae said homeowners will never
ditch the classic garden look for good but the demand for modern outdoor spaces isn’t likely to subside
anytime soon.
“Typically, I think our industry
is still pretty young as people still have a perception of gardens being kind of the classic look, the
English-style cottage garden,” he said. “But the modern era in gardens is obviously here to stay.”
And Earth Inc. has been a resounding success in the industry, evidenced by numerous awards at the Interior
Design Show and Canada Blooms, an annual garden and flower festival in Toronto.
One of the company’s most prized and unique creations is a structure they call the “dining pavilion,”
designed and built in a Toronto backyard. Constructed entirely from glass and perched atop a wooden deck in
the middle of the yard, the neat thing about the semi-enclosed space is that each diner has a different
perspective on the garden as they eat their dinner or sip their wine. McRae said that depending on your
position, you would have a view of the house, a park, the lawn or a huge white pine.
“If you just rotated everybody around the table, now your view is a totally different view,” McRae said of
the design.
So while the three men have different design styles, they have definitely formed a tight bond through
spending the past 14 years working together as a team. In fact, since Earth Inc. began, all three have
experienced an important milestone of adulthood. When they first met 14 years ago, McRae, Dale and Loblaw,
who are all married, had zero children between them.
“Now there are seven,” McRae said. “I have three, James has two and Joel has two.”
And while the extra family members might keep them up a little later each night, the enthusiasm the three men
share for landscape design and Earth Inc. hasn’t changed a bit.
“We wouldn’t be doing it, I don’t think, if we didn’t still love the design process and installing these
gardens,” said McRae. “We’re crazy about gardens. We love it.” •
Photo
Courtesy: Earth Inc.
