the following is article is from the Crains NY, November 22, 2020 edition. Written by Natalie Sachmechi, with photographs by Buck Ennis
A Landscape Designer turns New Yorker’s Outdoor Spaces into Oases
Haiman’s clients want a peaceful place to entertain guests outdoors.
For more than a decade, Todd Haiman has been designing gardens for New York terraces, roofs and yards.
With everyone spending more time at home and taking stock of their space during the pandemic, more city residents are calling on him to beautify their outdoor areas and make them more functional. He currently is working on 14 projects.
“Because of Covid-19, we are all spending more time indoors, subsequently longing to have a greater connection with the outdoors” Haiman said.
Many of his clients seek to use their outside spaces to entertain as well as to escape into a more peaceful environment at home.
His eponymous firm’s 24 clients can be found all over the city, including in SoHo, Park Slope and Queens. He can landscape spaces as small as 300 square feet as well as sprawling, 2,500-square-foot areas, he said. Clients pay five to six figures for his work, depending on the size and complexity of the project.
New York’s first Resident Landscape Designer
In May the developers of a new Tribeca condominium, 30 Warren, asked Haiman to be the building’s resident landscape designer.
Before discovering his passion for bringing greenery to the concrete jungle, he was a photographer who worked in advertising. After investing in a condominium with a few partners, he decided to build a rooftop garden at the property.
He started small, growing basil and tomatoes, though at the time he had no experience with gardening.
“I grew up in Brooklyn,” he said. “If I wanted green, I went to Prospect Park.”
Eventually, he installed an irrigation system, then took classes at the New York Botanical Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture. From there he got a master’s degree in landscape design at Columbia.
“I just thrived in it,” he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic isn’t the first time Haiman has navigated a tough economy. He got his master’s in 2009, during the peak of the financial crisis, and couldn’t land a job. He decided to go off on his own. He got his first gig designing a garden in Brooklyn for someone on the board of his childhood synagogue.
Sustainability is at the crux of Haiman’s business. He uses sustainable, non-toxic materials that don’t injure the environment and as many native plants as possible, he said.
In September lawmakers called on Mayor Bill de Blasio to offer a tax abatement for property owners who install greenery on their building’s roof. So-called green roofs help the city by capturing stormwater runoff, reducing flood risks and helping cool buildings during hot weather.
“When we create gardens, we create a sense of order and stability,” Haiman said. “In these anxious times, being within nature is a way of healing.”
TODD HAIMAN
AGE 60
GREW UP Mill Basin, Brooklyn
RESIDES South Street Seaport
EDUCATION Bachelor’s in English and art history, SUNY Albany; master’s in landscape design, Columbia University, School of Professional Horticulture/NYBG
GIVING BACK Haiman has donated his services to synagogues/churches/schools in the city in need of some sprucing up.
BASKETBALL FEVER When he was a teenager, Haiman loved the Knicks so much, he took a job at Madison Square Garden selling sodas during games. He dreamed of being the team’s point guard.
QUIRKY COLLECTION Haiman owns nearly 100 vintage lunch boxes, including one featuring the Beatles and a Roy Rogers model. His collection was bigger, but many were lost when his apartment was flooded during Superstorm Sandy.
