Artist/botanist Patrick Blanc of Paris created the Living Wall, located at the first-floor entrance of the Milgard Work Opportunity Center. The 20×40-foot wall has 96 species (both native and non-native) totaling about 2,200 individual plants in the 800-square-foot piece.

How it was built
The wall, also called a vertical garden, started with a metal frame attached to the building. A double layer of felt, forming a pocket, was then mounted on top of PVC piping and attached to the frame. Slits cut in the felt make room for the plants, which are fed through a drip irrigation system with temperature controls to avoid freezing during the coldest days. Milgard Center architects BCRA proposed the artwork for the wall.

“For someone who doesn’t know Blanc, it might be fair to say here is someone doing something with plants that Dale Chihuly did with glass,” said Bob Katica, a principal with architects BCRA and . “This is a new, out-of-the-box idea about art. It’s about possibilities and opportunities like Goodwill.”

What people are saying about it
The wall represents Blanc’s first exterior piece in the North America. Some publications have described it as “big news,” and headlined it as a “new city icon” for Tacoma. Program participants who come to the Milgard center for training have said represents new possibilities such as what they look to accomplish through the job training and placement services Goodwill provides.