Lisa Waud told The New York Times that inspiration for the Flower House struck in 2012, when she saw images from a Christian Dior couture show in a Parisian mansion
An abandoned house in Detroit that was once filled with broken glass, jammed toilets —even a dead animal — turned into a flower wonderland for one long weekend this month. Soon, it will become an urban farm.
Lisa Waud, owner of Pot & Box, a floral design studio with locations in Ann Arbor and Detroit, bought the derelict duplex building for $500 a year ago. While the structure itself is unsalvageable, Waud led a team of floral designers to create Flower House, a flower-centric art installation inside the crumbling walls of one half of the duplex. Over the course of three days, some 2,000 visitors toured the building.
Waud told The New York Times that inspiration for Flower House struck in 2012, when she saw images from a Christian Dior couture show in a Parisian mansion.
“It was stunning,” she said. “I knew immediately that I wanted to do that — but living in Detroit, I pictured it in an abandoned house. I’m trying to rebrand abandoned houses as a resource.”
Once the structure is deconstructed, Waud plans to eventually turn the lot into a seasonal farm to help supply flowers, including peonies and dahlias, for her business.
The main room of the Flower House in Detroit. Photo Credit: Laura McDermott
Saving the building would have cost an estimated $1 million; a local company will deconstruct rather than demolish the building — a process that is more expensive but also more environmentally friendly. The $15 admission from the exhibition will help offset the cost of the lot’s transformation from art installation to farm.
Waud said she initially planned to raise $150,000 to cover the installation’s floral costs, but then the California Cut Flower Commission, Mayesh and Nordlie, offered to donate their flowers. (All of the flowers used in the installation were American grown.) In all, 36 floral designers also donated time and talent to create vignettes in each room.
On the evening of Friday, Oct. 16, Waud also hosted the final dinner in the 2015 American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour, sponsored in part by the California Cut Flower Commission.
The 10-city tour highlighted the range of American grown flowers, alongside local cuisines in intimate settings. A portion of each $175 ticket will go toward the Flower House deconstruction. (Click here to read more about that dinner series.)
Check out more pictures of the Flower House on Facebook and Instagram.
