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Hollander’s Habitat

With more than 400 projects over 25 years, Ed Hollander continues to dominate the globe as the premier landscape architect

*The great thing about hydrangeas is that they are in flower four months at a time. I also love to incorporate David Austin roses, as well as Sarah Bernhardt and Festiva Maxima peonies.*

Hamptonite Ed Hollander is a world-renowned landscape architect who has worked on countless high-profile projects throughout his career, including private residences, commercial developments, and public parks. Hollander Design incorporates elements of nature, horticulture, and architectural integration to create visually stunning and functional outdoor spaces. He is recognized for his attention to detail, sensitivity to the environment, and ability to create harmonious outdoor environments.

How did you originally become a garden lover?
I started out as a history major at Vassar and then went to the New York Botanical Garden to study horticulture, and ecology. And for a couple of years that really resonated with me, but instead of sitting in class, I would prefer to work with all of the old gardeners who had been there forever. I didn’t really want to be a gardener, so I ended up at the University of Pennsylvania studying landscape architecture and life started to unfold from there.

You really have to be on site every week because you’ve got to walk the project. A chunk of this is science and some of this is art, and you know a lot of this is just “it’s got to feel right”, says Hollander.

How do you split time between your New York City and Hamptons offices?
I’m generally out east for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’ve got the whole residential part of our Hollander Design world, but then we’ve got a whole urban design studio that’s doing everything from the next phase of Hudson Yards to lots of private residential projects in the city.

Tell us more about your project in Taiwan.
There’s a city in Taiwan called Taichung City where we are working on seven big Urban Tower projects out of our American studio with parks and gardens. There’s a real desire to combine architecture with the landscape there which we love to do.

All the curves can be drawn on a plan, but I have built more stuff dragging my shoe in the dirt because sooner or later that’s how things get done. It’s much more fun to be out on site with everybody and to see things start to come to life.

Do you enjoy the challenge of working in so many parts of the world at once?
We do. We have also worked in Shanghai and other cities in mainland China and Hong Kong. We have an exciting project off the coast of Scotland, which is just the coldest, dampest, place in the world, and then we go to Montecito, which has the most perfect climate in the world. Landscape designs are so ecologically specific.

Have you found a pro tip that binds most of your projects together?
It’s an enormous amount of fun for me. The planting part of it all is probably where my true heart and passion lies, so to be able to walk around nurseries right in rural Taiwan and figure out what’s this and what’s it related to is a fun challenge. The great thing about horticulture is if you speak in Latin names everyone in the world can understand you.

How big is the Hollander team?
We’ve got three main studios. The residential studio does all of the gardens, residences and estates really throughout the area. Another one of my partners runs the urban studio, and another partner runs the Chicago office. With the number of contractors that get pulled into this, it’s a pretty big family that we have fun with here.

Can you talk us through the initial steps of a new project?
We try to figure out what the land wants to do. How does this house work? How do we combine landscape and architecture? How do we understand the family to find out who they are and what’s going to make this wonderful for them? And because we do work with the most contemporary to the most traditional, there’s a pretty big range in the kinds of projects that we get to do. It’s a choreography of a large ballet.

What are your current projects in Sag Harbor?
Sag Harbor is basically home for me, in our charming little old house right in the historic part of the village. I’m much more intimately involved with everything in and around the Hamptons, only because we do so much work there. We do lots of pro bono projects for the village of Sag Harbor. All of the landscape people are kind enough to donate their labor for doing this. We recently completed the new John Steinbeck Park, and the new Long Wharf promenade design.

Do you have a “number one” plant that appears in most Hollander projects?
My “number one plant” is plural – my pollinator plants. Something that’s not only beautiful for you and me, but also beautiful for the bees and the butterflies. My favorite boxwood is green velvet, and you can never have too many Hydrangeas.

Where will we find you on your downtime in Sag Harbor?
At the American Hotel, and The Beacon, where we love to have dinner on the second floor overlooking Sag Harbor at sunset.

Such a wildly dynamic and demanding workload. Do you ever think about slowing down?
There’s some of us who are very lucky. My wife is like this. I’m like this. It’s who we are. If what you’re doing is who you are, well, why would you want to stop doing it? Are there times when the tree deliveries don’t show up, when this plant dies, or things that make me want to pull the little hair left on my head? Of course! But then the long and short of it is truly all fun!