I hate malls. I am sorry but I do, I always have. So when I announced I wanted to go to Cleveland to visit a galleria, you would have thought I was suggesting we sell our house and move to outer Mongolia. As crazy as it sounds I do want to go to Cleveland to go to this Galleria at Erieview, and I want to have lunch with Vicky Poole. Why? Because she is a genius, and because the Galleria is remarkable.

The Galleria’s occupancy had started to decline and Vicky knew she had to do something to increase traffic to the mall. So she started offering the atrium in the Galleria as a banquet hall. This was good, but then she was inspired by something she had seen in New York and she decided to really make a difference in the Galleria.

She set up the sun filled  Galleria as a hydroponic garden. Hanging from the ceilings and the stair banisters are tomatoes, lettuces, and herbs.  Vicky is using the space to showcase organic gardening, creative gardening solutions and even better, great ways to utilize urban spaces.

Recently Vicky was approached about experimenting with airoponic growing, she agreed to the experiment and is working with the student who suggested it to implement it at the Galleria. The project has recently been awarded a 30,000.00 grant from the Civic Innovation Lab and they are working on a composting solution for the food court scraps and will be selling their produce to the food courts.

What I love about Vicky is that she took something that could have been bad, slowing of traffic at the galleria, and turned it into something amazing! She really used her background as a farmers granddaughter, taking what she knows, and turned it into a learning, growing and experimental environment. From a marketing standpoint it is phenomenal. From a business standpoint it is a great save, and from an environmental standpoint it is a great example to other companies who own these large glass buildings to think outside of the box and start using their spaces to improve our environment.

You want to go visit the Galleria at Erieview in Cleveland now too don’t you?

Gardens Under Glass, as it is now called, is welcoming any suggestions or ideas for their endeavor. You can email them at gardensunderglass@yahoo.com.

(the garden photo is from blog.cleveland.com, who ran the original story)

-Sheri

Tags: green innovation