Colchester — AgroSci Inc., a local company at the cutting edge of horticulture and technology, announced Monday that it has installed in Miami the largest "green wall" ever to grace a lodging facility in the United States.

The 2,900-square-foot outdoor wall at the main entrance to newly opened 1 Hotel South Beach is two stories high and contains about 12,000 living plants designed to survive local growing conditions. Design work was directed by the client, said AgroSci chief executive Chris Pianta in a phone interview, but given the beach location ornamental grasses had to substitute for the foliage that had originally been suggested.

Twenty-seven different varieties of plants were used for the green wall, which includes a specially designed irrigation system that is employed only when necessary.

"It has a lot of different textures and colors," Pianta said. "Miami was a challenge."

The upscale hotel also hosts a 10- by 30-foot AgroSci green wall in the ballroom. This interior wall, featuring a patent-pending AgroSci system designed to naturally clean the air, meshes with the hotel's natural themes brought together by hotel owner Barry Sternlicht.

"Barry and his partners are visionary developers," Mark Prescott, AgroSci's president, said in a statement. "It's been a wonderful opportunity for us."

AgroSci also has been involved in the Hotel 1 Central Park project that Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group is expected to complete this summer in Manhattan. A wall of English ivy that runs up to three stories will be the company's main accomplishment there.

Other recent AgroSci projects have involved a condominium project in Maryland and a two-sided wall at Binghamton University in Binghamton, N.Y. The company is also looking into creating air-cleaning AgroSci installations at bus stops in London.

Pianta said AgroSci, which moved two years ago from New York state to a modest office-and-warehouse space on Dr. Foote Road, has made significant strides since moving to Connecticut. The company still markets such consumer products as My Lazy Gardener, an indoor growing system for homes, and Purrfect Air, which promises to reduce cat-litter odor, he added. "But the bulk of the business has really started to jump ahead in the green wall business," he said.

AgroSci's so-called "Aerogation system" directs vapor and heat to the root system of soil-based plants, Pianta said, and its water-recirculation setup means the company's proprietary technology is economical.

Pianta said all the systems and walls are designed out of AgroSci's Colchester headquarters. Many of the installations are completed by local landscapers, who often also provide maintenance services.

He expects business to increase 15 percent to 20 percent this year. Most of AgroSci's business is on the East Coast, though it did provide test walls at Disney's Imagineering Studios outside Anaheim, Calif.

AgroSci's green walls fit into the new "Biophilia" movement that is attempting to improve health and human happiness by developing natural spaces in urban environments.

"We are using Mother Nature and how she functions to improve indoor air quality," Pianta said.

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow