Project Description
IRMCO® Advanced Lubricant Technologies is a manufacturer of oil-free metal forming and tube bending lubricants. The company, founded in 1914 and based in Evanston since 1919, is considered an industry innovator, a steward for the environment and an exemplary neighbor in the West End Industrial District. CEO Jeff Jeffery, the great-grandson of founder William Oats Jeffery, contacted Nature’s Perspective in the autumn of 2013 to commemorate the company’s upcoming 100th anniversary with a renewed front entrance that would impart an open, park-like setting.
As it stood for many years, tightly sheared Yew and Barberry hedges flanked a narrow paver walk which connected the side parking lot to the recessed front entrance with double doors. An old Crabapple, originally planted by Mr. Jeffery’s grandfather over fifty years ago, and two overgrown Scotch Pines also stood, but no longer enhanced the property. A straight band of Purpleleaf Wintercreeper groundcover completed the spartan landscaping.
Nature’s Perspective designed a large terrace of Cambrian Cream Sandstone and a wide clay paver walk to bring prominence to the front doors. A landing of crushed river gravel and path of re-purposed concrete aggregate squares placed closer to the foundation lead to the gate of an enclosed outdoor gathering room with overhead wood beams.
A pair of pyramidal Boxwood flanking the front doors and a staggered row of globe Boxwoods function as evergreen foundation plantings. A large, sweeping bed, filled with low-growing, wide swaths of perennials, ornamental grasses and annuals, reinforce the building’s low and wide mansard roof, soften the hardscaping and add seasonal color and texture. A Seven Son Flower Tree, a Katsuratree, Summer Wine Ninebark and Drift Roses complete a renewed entrance that will bring many years of beauty and inspiration to the company, its employees, visitors and neighbors.
