Laurence Fosgate Teacher and Artist

Laurence Fosgate painting at Jupiter Florida

Laurence E Fosgate shows New Orlando Performing Arts Center

The 300 million dollar plus Performing Arts Center under construction in downtown Orlando will be a game changer in the layout of the city's core. The plaza on the complex's west side will adjoin the already existing City Hall Plaza to create a marvelous iconic public space. This area will surely be a major local nexus for public gatherings.  The old OUC building is being converted to a 100 plus room boutique hotel by the "W" hotel group and will anchor the southwest corner of the new space. Continuing across Orange Avenue on the south side will be a new tower by the CNL group.  This whole area sits just above the historic Lake Lucerne park that is still lined by some magnificent old mansions that harken back to the turn of the previous century.  The Dr. Phillips house is among those.  It's turreted Victorian architecture now houses a bed and breakfast.

Laurence Fosgate Shows New Luxury Highrise for Orlando

The New luxury high rise apartments going up near the Orange County Courthouse are marked here by the construction crane visible here from Lake Eola Park. The building will add two hundred thirty units, all with balconies.

Laurence E Fosgate shows Orlando's New Building Projects

Showing that it is a vibrant spot in the world economy, Orlando is flourishing with a host of new projects.

Among the most exciting is the addition of 1.3 acres to the southeast corner of the jewel of downtown Orlando, Lake Eola Park.  This will involve the relocating of four older homes which will free up valuable land for expanding the park.

Laurence E Fosgate Starts Two New Projects

We just finished design work for a charming cottage in College Park and anticipate starting work soon. It will have natural Pennsylvannia Bluestone on the front steps and a layered look to the landscaping, while the side will have a large two tiered terrace in natural earth tones. The overall lot size is smallish but the well planned landscape should make most people focus on the fact that it has all the elements to be a great outdoor living space for the couple and their two young sons.

The other project is out near the Bay Hill Country Club -she is a chef at a high end Italian restaurant and he is an accountant. Phase one will create a large entry courtyard with gold travertine complimenting the existing Florida fieldstone. Edible and fragrant plants as well as fruit trees will enhance this environment. The designs of Spanish Colonial and Mediterranean will be fused to create a unique Florida home. Look for pictures to follow as we bring these projects to fruition.

Ed Fosgate's New Landscaping Ideas for Orlando

Recently, two types of designs have struck my fancy. Both are in regard to front, and to the extent they are visible from the street, side yards as well. First, using plants in a sculptural way to achieve a formal structured and layered look. This can be interesting with a minimum of colors (other than shades of green) since texture and shape give this design interest. One of my favorites is to start with zoysia grass as the first layer, then add minima jasmine, and subsequent elements that could include boxwood, ilex schillings, loropetalums, camelia, shrub roses, eugenias, african iris, day lilies, podocarpus, Italian and Arizona cypresses, some of these being clipped in a variety of different shapes (where appropriate). This somewhat formal look is very deceptive because it looks high-maintenance but isn't!
The other style is to greatly reduce lawn and replace with many ground covers and small shrubs combined with river rocks and rock gardens. We did a series of rock gardens along a curving walkway- all with different themes- tropical. oriental, lilies, succulents and east Asian. The result was visually stunning as well as being low maintenance and green. Our guideline at Laurence E Fosgate is that beauty means not only being appealing to the eye but being eco-friendly.As much as that sounds idealistic, it is eminently practical. Eco-friendly in the end means spending less money and work while producing better results. If that's not beautiful. I don't know what is.