Steel Art Trees to Enliven Scenic Routes' Theme Designs

NatureMaker®, producers of one-of-a-kind, metal tree sculptures, and Scenic Route, the UK's premier theme environment specialists, recently joined creative forces to offer clients imaginative arboreal landscapes.

NatureMaker's true-to-life tree and plant forms will complement Scenic Routes' specialties in animal, futuristic, figurative, and building designs.

"Our 'monumetal' trees have grown into major design elements in museums, resorts, casinos, retail environments, zoos, hotels and private residences," says Gary Hanick, co-founder and president of NatureMaker. "We have admired the work of Scenic Route for many years. This collaboration will allow us to develop new joint ventures all over the world."

Hanick and Colin Pyrah, Managing Director of Scenic Route, have already launched joint marketing initiatives in the USA, UK, Eastern Europe, and particularly in the Middle East, where both companies have been independently active. Scenic Route is presently working on a Maritime Museum at Khalifa Park in Abu Dhabi, while NatureMaker planted a 14-foot olive tree with a 50-foot wide canopy at Sheik Zayed Palace, also in Abu Dhabi.

NatureMaker is also currently creating a native Evangeline oak for the Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans; an oasis of two-story palm trees for Palm Beach Gardens, Florida; and a series of outdoor, 8-meter tall pine trees for the new golden monkey exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. Recently completed projects include the Federal Reserve Bank Museum in Cleveland, the National Underground Railroad Museum in Cincinnati, and Eastern Connecticut State University.

Scenic Route is now working on theming designs for Bioscope in the Alsace in France, The Lincoln Museum, and The Wetlands Museum in Hong Kong. It recently finished contracts at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, The Royal Armouries, and the new Ice Age dark ride at MoviePark in Germany.

Both companies took root in 1983. Together, their design workshops now employ 120 artisans skilled in sculpture, painting, prop-making, metalwork, fiberglass fabrication, and model-making.

NatureMaker co-founders Hanick and Bennett Abrams first began experimenting with hardwood branches as objets d'art. Their early bark-over-steel trees became the catalyst for column clad, freestanding, and wall-mounted tree sculptures. As they addressed issues of structural integrity, sound engineering, building codes, and fire safety, NatureMaker's commissions grew more diverse. NatureMaker trees are now installed world-wide in restaurants, libraries, theme parks and corporate headquarters.

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