If you’ve been to San Francisco lately, you know it can feel a bit like you’ve stepped into the future. Self-driving Waymo taxis crowd the streets. Every billboard advertises some kind of artificial intelligence. In some restaurants you place your lunch order through a giant touchscreen—with no human contact.
Landscape and outdoor design studio ORCA’s new showroom is the antithesis of the city’s techno-futuristic vibes. Inside you’ll find bricks and pavers made from California clay and rock, cork-lined walls, and oversized plants, all of which give the space a distinctly earthy vibe. There is nary a screen or digital interface in sight. “It’s a return to earth and I don’t think people are totally expecting that in 2026,” says designer Molly Sedlacek, the founder of ORCA.
Sedlacek chose the Dogpatch location to be near the city’s design district and other garden destinations, including Flora Grubb, which has carried a selection of ORCA’s wares for several years. Illuminated by a trio of pendant lights by Hennepin Made and dappled daylight, the boutique on 3rd Street is outfitted with simple wood shelves and cork display walls reminiscent of the firm’s Los Angeles showroom and office. It’s spare but quietly considered, much like ORCA’s gardens that marry an organic-minimalist aesthetic with a predominantly native plant palette.
The San Francisco showroom is the latest step in Sedlacek’s ventures into products and retail, which began as an online store in 2021. Last year Sedlacek turned ORCA’s Los Angeles office—which, before that, had been her home—into ORCA’s first showroom. In these five years the product line has also grown and Sedlacek wanted designers and homeowners to be able to see and feel everything they offer.
Ever innovating and expanding, Sedlacek says ORCA has several new products in the works, including a slurry material and glazed tiles. Sedlacek is particularly excited about the possibilities for the slurry, noting, “People don’t want to have to redo retaining walls and fencing. This material allows you to just coat over it with a textural color that pairs back to the pavers.” The glazed tiles will enable customers to use ORCA’s tiles in a wet scenario.
Here at Gardenista we’re excited to see a young design firm creating locally sourced hardscaping materials to replace concrete. If you’re in the Bay Area and planning an outdoor renovation, it’s worth a visit to see these subtle, earthy materials in person.
Photography by Cass Cleave. (Featured photograph, above, courtesy of ORCA.)
See also:
- ‘Nothing Wasteful, Everything Intentional’: Molly Sedlacek’s Small but Mighty Live/Work Space in Los Angeles
- Ask the Expert: Molly Sedlacek of ORCA, on Permeable Hardscaping
- Garden Visit: A Historic House by Iconic Southern California Architect Cliff May Gets the ORCA Glow-up
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