Letter to the editor: Landscape architects, not landscapers, urged town to revisit plant rules

Jorge Sanchez
·1 min read
Brian Vertesch and Jorge Sanchez oversee the Bradley Park Tidal Garden project in January 2021.
Brian Vertesch and Jorge Sanchez oversee the Bradley Park Tidal Garden project in January 2021.

Only as a correction to last week’s letter to the editor ("Plants that are native to Florida have numerous benefits," Sunday, May 15): The recommendations we, as the group of the major landscape architects in town, made to the mayor and Town Council concerning the present native ordinance were as landscape architects, not landscapers.

I will let the other signatories reply, but the experience of SMI Landscape Architecture has been honored throughout the years as follows:

  • Florida Trust for Historic Preservation in 1995

  • The Garden Club of Palm Beach in 1997, 2014, 2019

  • Arthur Ross Award in the category of Landscape Architecture awarded by The Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America (New York) in 2010, and others in 2014 and 2019

  • Palm Beach Chamber Award in 2012

  • Lesly S. Smith Landscape Award in 2013, 2016 and 2019

  • FNGLA Award of Excellence for Residential Garden in 2013

  • American Society of Landscape Architects Florida Chapter Award in 2017

  • Thomas N. Armstrong III Award (New York School of Interior Design) in 2018

  • Zone Civic Improvement Award, The Garden Club of America in 2019

  • Civic Association Town Beautification Award in 2021

These 16 awards designate our firm as experts on the subjects of plants, including natives.

Jorge Sanchez,

SMI Landscape Architecture

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Letter: Landscape architects weighed in on Palm Beach's native plant rule