Meet Zach Spencer, who brings nearly 30 years of interiorscape industry experience to his role in Operations Management here at Amlings. In this interview, he shares how his creative background shapes his daily work and what happens behind the scenes to bring large-scale commercial installations to life.
Q: How did you get started in this field?
I’ve been with Amlings since 2018, but I’ve been in the interiorscape industry for nearly 30 years. And I’ve also grown up around plants and design. My dad had a small landscaping business when I was younger, I worked at a nursery as a teenager, and creativity ran deep in the family. My grandfather was an old-school graphic designer — drafting tables, T-squares, Exacto knives, thousands of design markers, all of it. My uncle carried that into the digital era and ran his own graphic design company.
I answered an ad for an interiorscape company called Greens by White. I took the job, got involved in the industry, and really enjoyed it. From there, I immersed myself in the business and over time, I moved into operations management and grew with the company that has now become Amlings.
Q: What does your role at Amlings involve today?
Years ago, the design team jokingly called me “the dream crusher” because a big part of my role is bridging the gap between design vision and real-world execution. Our designers come up with beautiful concepts, and my job beyond coordinating the staging & installation details is helping figure out how we make those ideas happen successfully — not just visually, but logistically and sustainably. Largely, that means comprehending, communicating & executing the common goals for our team and the client.
Q: How has your artistic background influenced your work?
Tremendously.
I went to the American Academy of Art and studied fine art and illustration before shifting gears professionally. I still paint occasionally, play music, and stay involved creatively whenever I can.
That creative training certainly influences the work we do in interior landscape design. This industry involves much more than just plant maintenance. There’s composition, spatial awareness and balance. You develop an eye for how everything works together.
Q: We hear you’re in a band — tell us about that.
I currently play guitar in a band called Stiff. Fast paced, hardcore rock and roll — and a lot of yelling at things. LOL.
Meanwhile, my personal music taste is honestly all over the place.
Most of the guys I play with are longtime friends, and staying creative outside of work keeps me energized.
Q: What’s one thing people misunderstand about plants in commercial buildings?
I think many people have little understanding how much happens before a plant ever reaches their lobby. Some clients think we grow all the plants and have full access to any plant imaginable, any time. In reality, there’s this massive supply chain behind the scenes — growers, brokers, shipping logistics, acclimation, availability tracking, containers coming from overseas, receiving teams, installation schedules — and it all truly changes constantly because we’re dealing with live material, grown in live conditions.
There’s also understanding how a plant can go from a tropical, high-humidity climate to a conference room where the lights may only turn on twice a week. Availability and adaptability can be a real fickle dance. In operations we have to pivot on supply and problem solve, and also set up the plants for success. How will they be maintained by our team? What conditions do they need accommodated?
Q: What types of projects stand out to you most?
It’s honestly hard to choose! Holiday installations are always incredible. So many are large-scale and fast paced. You’re building these massive, magical scenes in luxury hotels and commercial spaces on incredibly tight timelines. Months of planning, giant trees, oversized decor, lifts everywhere, teams moving nonstop — and somehow you pull it all together over and over again in a month.
Those projects are instantly gratifying because the transformation is so dramatic.
Commercial lobbies and office spaces with stylized container designs are our “bread & butter,” but some of my favorite projects are the long-term, larger installations where architecture and landscaping were thoughtfully designed together as a focal point. Areas with built-in planters, ideal lighting conditions, and spaces designed ideally for plants to mature naturally over time really make me appreciate our work most.
Q: What do you enjoy most about the work?
At the end of the day, I enjoy making spaces better and making people a little happier.
Q: Have you continued to pass down those creative genes to your kids?
I have three kids, and they’ve all pursued creative paths in different ways. My middle daughter works in costume and apparel design and does work with the Joffrey Ballet.
My oldest daughter has a background in agriculture and horticulture. She works with a large CSA organization coordinating produce, vendors, and food delivery across the Chicago area – while also finding time to manage land that’s been in our family for a century.
My youngest son is an amazing ‘people- person’! He lives and works locally as an insurance agent, enjoying pets and pastimes.
Q: We hear you’re a bit of a legend when it comes to hot peppers.
Ha! We have a small garden at the Amlings office and we planted ghost peppers & Carolina reapers. I was harvesting for the week, plucked one from the vine, casually took a phone call and then absentmindedly put nearly the entire pepper in my mouth.
Ten seconds later, all the cliches happened to me, in quick succession. Sweating buckets. Immediate pain as if someone was giving me gut punches. My mind was racing and crazy paranoia set in, “can I burn my esophagus or my intestines?” I was panicking and pacing around the office. In short, I got served!
Afterwards, I put up WARNING signs in front of the peppers– Listing Scoville units, and “Please proceed with caution.” Ha! I fear one day security footage of this incident will surface somewhere. Haha!
A huge thank you to Zach for taking the time to share his story with us. We deeply appreciate his hard work behind the scenes and the unique creative energy he brings to the Amlings team every single day.
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