Tobi Wilde - Real Estate Guide, Santa Fe New Mexican
Indigo Spirit rocks
By Paul Weideman | The New Mexican
7/5/2009
(see Adam’s Letter to the Editor below )
Photo courtesy Gabrielle Loffer
Adam Steinberg and Tobi Wilde have been working in both intimate and public settings of late. Three examples of recent jobs for the landscaper (Steinberg is the owner of Indigo Spirit Landscapes in Santa Fe) and his collaborating landscape artist are two back yards on Nicole Place, off Agua Fria Street, and the large island directly in front of Camel Rock Casino.
At the Malnar residence on Nicole Place, the pair encountered a flat yard with a few landscaping items placed by the owner. Wilde’s design involved digging a large, central area for a water feature and a semicircular stone bench, then using the excavated earth to construct a berm behind it. The result is a more interesting variety in ground levels.
“Tobi is the designer and we implement her designs,” said Steinberg, who met Wilde about 15 years ago when she was the owner of Café Oasis. The two have worked on landscapes together for six years.
He pointed out the detailed placement of rocks and paving materials, in this case flagstone in three colors, moss rock, and river stones.
“For the Camel Rock commission, we spent a lot of time creating a camel out of boulders as a feature and to obscure the valet parking area from the highway,” he said. “Just before we were going to do the neck and head, the pueblo decided they didn’t want it. So we took it apart in four days and we used all the boulders for the design you see now.”
There are two pools and a cascading stream, with programmed color kinetic lighting, and, up on top, 10 feet high, is what Wilde calls the “viewing mount.”
“I pay a lot of attention to the floor,” Wilde said. “I had a certain amount of flagstone of different colors and bricks and a lot of river rock, and every piece was put down with purpose. The thing they really didn’t want, which I did after throwing a big fit, is the mount, where you walk up and feel the power.
“Adam is amazing when he does fountains. That one is so magical. It’s an upper fountain with seating all around it, then it shoots up as a geyser, and it comes down to a lower pond, also with benches all around.
“To have the privilege to do this, that’s the gift. The money’s not coming, but it’s a good start.”
Steinberg said they are honored to have been chosen to do the landscape for Camel Rock. “That island had sat barren for 13 years prior, with many companies proposing ideas. We were chosen based upon the beauty and creativity of Tobi’s design.”
For more information, see tobiwilde.com and indigospiritlandscapes.com.
Original article: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Real%20Estate/Indigo-Spirit-rocks
Adam’s letter of clarification to the New Mexican
“Indigo Spirit Rocks,” the article in the July Real Estate Guide, although a lovely introduction to the landscape work that Tobi Wilde and Adam Steinberg collaborate to create, missed the point and failed to give understanding to the value and importance of Tobi Wilde as the innovative landscape artist whose sensitivity, vision and direction bring the projects to their magnificence. The island landscaping in front of Camel Rock Casino is a perfect example of her stellar creativity. For the water feature, besides envisioning the overall layout of high geyser, upper pool and cascade returns to the lower pool, Tobi directed the sculpting with different textures and colors of rock creating its soft shape and beautiful water flows and came up with the use of streams of mirror between the rocks to enhance the visual pull from the passing highway. When the Casino required us to dismantle the camel it was Tobi’s vision to reset the large boulders clustered upright as an ancient power place and to lay multi colored brick, local flat river stone, flagstone and moss rock as a mosaic flooring that truly dances the viewer through her park of lovely stone benches. For the viewing mount she raised the floor level 8’ into the air, creating a breath taking viewing platform complete with benches looking out over the gushing waterfall, the mosaic floor/landscaping and at the vista of northern New Mexico. This inspired feature which Tobi had to push and struggle for, is now a wonderful new asset that Tesuque Pueblo can use for weddings, staging live entertainment and as a respite for Casino patrons to refresh and reflect upon their luck.
It is an honor and a thrill to be working with such an exciting dynamic creative force as Tobi Wilde. The article title should read “Indigo Spirit Rocks with Tobi Wilde” as our work couldn’t possibly achieve this level without her. For more… Tobiwilde.com.
Sincerely,
Adam Steinberg, owner Indigo Spirit Landscapes
