Our History
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It is one of his signature plants and he is always willing to share his secret of successfully using it with the many people who call and ask his advice. A network of loyal customers developed and the success of his early Embassy Suites projects led Mr. Anderson into a series of large design and construction projects that established McCaren Designs’ national reputation. Also during this time, McCaren Designs began increasing its local customer base, obtaining maintenance contracts for dozens of new commercial accounts. In both 1987 and 1988, McCaren Designs earned a listing on Inc. Magazines “Inc. 500” Fastest Growing Private Companies in America.

His passion is working with the architectural community to design, install and maintain cutting-edge atrium projects. Frequently he asks the project owners for permission to use new plant materials that haven’t yet been proven to work in interiors. That is how he discovers his palette of new plants. One funny story goes: during one City Council meeting in Edina, Minnesota, where his atrium design/bid was receiving the Council’s final approval, a nationally known interiorscaper publicly admitted to not even knowing what all the plants were when they bid the project and thus they were objecting to the award of the contract to McCaren Designs.

Many of the prominent, local architectural firms have hired McRae to design their atrium projects. His reputation with them is strong, his innovation recognized and the list of projects is continually growing. McRae recently completed a $550,000.00 indoor community park, Woodbury Central Park, with the same architects who hired him in 1987 to design the first indoor park in Minnesota – Edinborough Leisure Park. This Woodbury project was a public project that never had to go out to bid because McCaren Designs was specified within the project manual as the only acceptable firm for the work.