News Release – September 2, 2011

Garden Design Magazine has spearheaded a renovation of the garden of the James Beard Foundation House in New York City’s Greenwich Village and will unveil the step-by-step evolution in its November/December issue and online at Gardendesign.com/JamesBeardGarden. The magazine, under the direction of Editor-in-Chief Norman Vanamee since December 2010, has also recently introduced a redesign with a new focus on offering the ultimate in resources for professionals and design enthusiasts who want inspiration on how to integrate nature into sophisticated home design.

The former home of the late James Beard, the pioneering food writer, chef, and personality, has been the headquarters for the James Beard Foundation’s activities and events since 1986. Like many New York City brownstones, it has a small and narrow garden, which had fallen into disrepair over the years and needed both structural and cosmetic changes. In January 2011, Garden Design began working with the Beard Foundation to map out a plan for renovating the garden space to make it both more inviting and more useable for the Foundation’s many events. Over the following six months, numerous individuals and companies contributed time and resources to make the transformation.

Partnering with landscape designer Paul Keyes and with input from Garden Design style director, Lindsey Taylor, and her sister, landscape architect Victoria Taylor, Garden Design helped create a new look for the garden, while also retaining many of its original elements. A number of companies, including Bartlett Tree Experts, Just Terraces, True Professional Series and Barlow Tyrie generously donated their services and goods to help transform the garden as well.

The evolution of the garden has been chronicled on gardendesign.com, with regular posts showing the before and after of the garden as well as lots of shots of the renovation in progress. Comments Vanamee, “It was an honor to partner with the James Beard Foundation to renovate this historical site. We hope our readers will be able draw some ideas from our renovation for their own gardens and to see how, even when working with a small budget, it’s possible to make a big difference in a garden renovation. We hope this is the first of many such collaborations.”

Celebrating gardening as an expression of personal style, Garden Design’s striking new look and rich, thoughtful content “stimulates all the senses” says Vanamee. With a new, modern design utilizing beautiful nature photography, the magazine offers readers a unique take on incorporating nature into our everyday life. Each issue features creative, thoughtful advice on outdoor entertaining and decor, edible gardening, the latest in landscape and floral design as well as inspiration from the world’s best gardens and leading gardeners. The magazine also goes beyond the practical, honoring the literary, artistic, and emotional aspects of gardening through essays by leading writers and evocative images. According to Vanamee, “Garden Design refects the future of the home: a new era in which the boundary between indoors and outdoors is erased, and nature is an integral part of sophisticated design.”