What will a visitor experience look like in the future?

By Lorraine Hunter

The Toronto Botanical Garden is a hidden gem, deeply beloved—but only to the people who know about it!

All that’s about to change as the first phase of the expansion into Edwards Gardens gets underway. Enter Frontier, a communications and purpose design firm and partner to lead design firm PMA.

“We do interpretive planning, talking to people and connecting the threads to help determine what a visitor’s experience will look like,” explains designer Jessica Leong. “And then we produce the right signage and way finding to enhance the experience. This might include plaques, special programs, landscapes, lighting and more.”

To do this, Frontier has interviewed at least 30 people including staff, donors, city employees and more,” says designer Lisa Qin. “We have reviewed TBG documents and the Master Plan, looked at other gardens and city attractions.”

What they have found is “a general sense of the importance of parks and green space, a passion for the TBG as a special place, a real sense of the importance of botanical gardens, conservation, education and public gardens as part of the community,” she said. “There is also a curiosity about the land and what happened there before.”

Inclusivity is an important part of the TBG story. With no entry fee, the gardens are open to everyone.

“The purpose of our design office is helping organizations express their purpose. That’s why we speak to as many people, or stakeholders, as possible,” says Paddy Harrington, who founded the business in 2014. “The more diversity involved the richer the experience you are going to get. Visibility is very important.”

There will also be Indigenous input including tangible stories, signage and educational programs based on Indigenous beliefs.

The TBG has many stories to tell. “There is the big story and also the special richness of smaller stories,” says Paddy. Updated, clear, cohesive signage will tell those.

Frontier began as a more traditional communications firm “but then because people kept asking about storytelling that aspect grew,” he says. Clients range from NBA basketball teams to the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. They are currently doing signage for the new City of Toronto Court House, “incorporating artifacts and telling stories that have been forgotten, wiped off and replaced by layers of other things. Our job there as at the TBG is revealing the layers.”

One of the TBG’s big stories is the importance of water and the ravines which connect it to the rest of the city. And then there are many smaller stories, like the existence of the Milne family cemetery on the grounds or the importance of a Metasequoia (dawn redwood), a rare garden treasure, planted on a site chosen so that it would be bathed in sunlight on the morning of the birthday of the wife of the man who planted it.

Members of the Frontier team tour the gardens and the ravine.

The TBG is both a botanical garden and a Toronto destination. To see how other institutions have achieved the balance between the two, the Frontier team has looked at such places as Montreal and Atlanta Botanical Gardens and Toronto’s Evergreen Brickworks, “a good example of an attraction that balances the importance of accessibility, programming and community,” said Lisa.

And, of course, there will be special events providing educational opportunities, appealing to all ages and opening the door to invite new partners and new audiences.

In 10 years from now “we want people to say ‘The TBG is a must see’,” concludes Jessica.

To learn more about Frontier go to https://frontier.is