6 Ways the Right Planters Improve Public Facilities

Every public facility is intended to benefit the people who use it, and the right planters can help enhance its functionality, look, and feel.

One of the defining characteristics of an incredible town or city is its public facilities. They help create a fulfilling experience for people and improve their overall quality of life.

And to ensure these facilities achieve their purposes, they need to be well-kept and appealing so that people want to utilize them. This can include everything from design to maintenance and even small decor touches like planters and greenery.

What Are Public Facilities?

If you feel like “public facilities” is a bit of a vague term, we’d agree. At a high level, public facilities are defined as “institutional responses to basic human needs, such as health, education, safety, and recreation.”

What that really means is that public facilities are things and places built by the government for the use of the public and include things like:

• Hospitals
• Schools
• Recreational facilities like gyms and public pools
• Police and fire stations

And that’s just to name a few.

Beyond their core function, the way they look and feel play a big role in their desirability and the experience they provide for people. Planters and greenery play a big role in this in a number of ways.

1. Using Planters to Define Spaces

Planters aren’t just used to hold plants. They can also be used to define existing spaces and to create new ones. This can include sectioning off walkways, dividing rooms, and more.

For example, we provided SUNY Cortland, one of 64 campuses in The State University of New York system, with Modern Elite Aluminum Planters that were used to partition off sections of its new dining hall in its student life center.

Modern Elite Rectangular Planters at SUNY Cortland University

 

2. Creating a Living Partition

Plants are well-known to support cognitive function, physical health, and psychological well-being. In fact, biophilic design leverages plants to incorporate these benefits into spaces. One way to do this is to use planters as living partitions.

This was the strategy used by Furbish, an innovative eco-design company, who utilized their specialized products to create a green roof and a green wall for the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, MD. We provided them with Modern Elite Metal Planters to separate a sitting area from a large hallway. These large planters created a living partition using the popular Zamioculcas zamiifolia (ZZ plant).

Modern Elite Divider Planter at the National Cancer Institute

3. Improving Public Spaces with Color

The use of color has been shown to have a direct impact on our moods and feelings. So, using colorful plants in public facilities can actually influence the way people feel when utilizing them.

Fortunately, with our PurePots and Modern Elite planter lines you have the option of our stock colors and also have access to many custom colors that will fit your designed space.

Contact PureModern today to discuss what color meets your brand specifications or click here to access our planter sample colors and order your set today for free.

4. Creating a Continuous Space

In public settings, planters can actually help create continuous spaces. This was the goal of a project we worked on in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: to widen the sidewalks on Argyle and Grafton streets and remove the curbs to create a more continuous space for foot traffic to walk between establishments. Modern Elite Cube Planters were used to achieve that goal as well as to add a touch of a design aesthetic. This downtown area includes a convention center, restaurants, nightclubs, shops, and hotels.

Modern Elite Cube Planters in Halifax, NS Canada

5. Decreasing Overall Maintenance with Faux Plant

One of the most common challenges with incorporating plants and greenery into public facilities is the mess they may cause, such as dropping leaves or foliage which needs to be cleaned up.

One way to work around this challenge is to utilize faux plants in your planters. And we have a perfect example of that.

Ausonio Incorporated, an award-winning design and build company, transformed an abandoned property into a multi-use government facility that now holds the Monterey County Government offices in Salinas, California.

We supplied them with Modern Elite aluminum commercial planters to add a bit of green in a long hallway, and a few were used to flank benches located in various strategic areas allowing people to rest if needed. The commercial planters were filled with faux plants and decorative stones to decrease their overall maintenance requirements.

Modern Elite Rectangular Planter in the hallway in Salinas, CA

6. Adding to the Design Aesthetic

On top of any functionality benefits, the right planters can add a sophisticated and elevated design aesthetic to any public facilities. In each of the projects we’ve showcased in this article, the planters also served to add a specific style that aligned perfectly with the place where they were utilized.

 

If you’re working on a new public facility or taking on a project to enhance an existing one, we’d strongly recommend that you consider adding planters and greenery into your design plan. Planters can help improve the functionality, look, and feel of any public facility.

If you’ve got questions about how to pick the perfect planters for a specific public facility, simply request a quote today. Our experts will be happy to help you find the perfect fit.