Molly Sedlacek
Founder of ORCA Living
Molly Sedlacek
FAME: Can you share the story of how ORCA was founded and what inspired you to turn your passion for nature into a design studio?
MS: I discovered my talent in outdoor design when I was planting, curating, and exploring use of outdoor space in my own garden in San Francisco. What I wanted, I couldn’t point to in a picture, it only existed in my imagination. It took material sourcing and experimenting to understand what flora, stone, and timber felt right. Quickly after completing this garden, my community of friends and family began supporting this conceptual approach to landscape design, and ORCA was born.
Judah NO. 1 Garden
FAME: How does your upbringing and personal connection to the outdoors play a role in your work today?
SB: Growing up on the Oregon coast, I spent my childhood playing in a Bay Laurel hedge my parents planted and a bamboo forest my dad grew. These innate acts of living in the outdoors started my journey as an outdoor designer. It was a blueprint to living that my family handed down.
“These innate acts of living in the outdoors started my journey as an outdoor designer. It was a blueprint to living that my family handed down.”
Big Boulder Garden
FAME: How would you describe ORCA’s design philosophy, and what makes your approach to landscapes and outdoor living different from others in the field?
MS: It begins with the human. What are they missing in their connection to their landscape? Is it physical interaction? Rest? Community? Understanding what in the natural surroundings needs to be highlighted, incorporated, or restored is the first step in designing a landscape. From there, we dive into materials and layouts that support the garden and are climate appropriate.
“It begins with the human. What are they missing in their connection to their landscape? ”
Bookshelf Garden
FAME: When beginning a new project, what does your design process look like from the first spark of an idea to the finished environment?
MS: First and foremost, I look at the existing topography and how we can work with it. The second thing I look at is who is occupying this garden. The third thing is looking to create rooms. Rooms create rituals and by designing intimate spaces we encourage daily routine outdoors. This builds a beautiful relationship with the garden.
FAME: Materials play an important role in your work. What draws you to certain materials, and how do they help you shape the experience of a space?
Eco Outdoor LA Showroom
“If a space doesn’t make you feel something, an opportunity has passed you by.”
MS: If a space doesn’t make you feel something, an opportunity has passed you by. And feeling goes beyond the mind: it’s touch, taste, smell, a distant memory, contentment and solitude. ORCA’s ethos is to lead with materials as these are the tangible components that build the space we experience these feelings in. The combination of soft grasses and a tall sturdy Sycamore with a worn stone bench below: this is a story told through materiality and scale. When we stand at the base of a Redwood, there is a feeling of awe and wonder. Our goal at ORCA is to recreate this in residential gardens.
FAME: What is your favorite plant? And your least favorite?
MS: My favorite plants are Salix babylonica and Weeping Willow. My least favorite plant is Foxtail ferns :)
Fig Garden
FAME: For clients who are starting to think about their own outdoor spaces, what advice would you give them to make the process more successful and rewarding?
MS: When beginning to design any space, I think the most important exercise is to reflect on what resonates with us from the past, versus looking to imagery and inspiration from the present or future. What gardens have you been in that gave you peace? What is your favorite smell? What tree did you sit under for shade in the summer? There are so many queues from our history that can inform our present to create a space that is enduring and inspiring.
“There are so many queues from our history that can inform our present to create a space that is enduring and inspiring.”
FAME: Out of all the projects you’ve worked on, is there one that stands out as a favorite or especially meaningful to you?
MS: Our project in Coronado was very special because the client wanted ORCA to bring a new approach to a traditional Cliff May ranch home. They trusted our design principals and material ethos, and the result is a fusion of our aesthetic with the respect to the late architect’s work.
Cliff May Garden
Mars Garden
FAME: Outside of design, what inspires you—books, places, rituals, or even hobbies—that feeds back into your creative process?
MS: For me, being in nature is the biggest inspiration. Hiking in the foothills of east Los Angeles, visiting the beaches of Oregon, or most recently, a trip to Japan to explore the artistry of stonework. Being outdoors and walking through forests, plants, and even the Huntington Gardens is where I find inspiration.