How to Maximize Curb Appeal with Commercial Landscape Design

Your organization’s approach to commercial landscape design can say just as much about your branding and community as your logo or advertisements. Learn how your curb appeal can make a difference for your customers, visitors, and your entire organization.

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Commercial Landscape Design Principles

In general, commercial landscape design follows a slightly different set of principles because it usually involves planting at scale. Landscaping for commercial properties is meant to attract more people toward the business and make them feel welcomed and comfortable in their presence.

When you’re working with an expert in commercial landscape design near you, they will generally follow most of these principles in their design work.

Guide Visitors to the Entrances

The biggest goal of any commercial business or public space is to attract customers and visitors through its doors and entryways, and the organization’s landscaping plays a key role in that as well. There are several ways to do this:

Fountains and other water features
Brightly colored plants
LED or festoon lighting

If an entrance to a business is pleasing to the eye, a customer is more likely to move towards it. The old saying “people buy with their eyes” has a place in landscaping, because if it is aesthetically pleasing, people gravitate towards it.

Create Shade for Outdoor Sitting

Suppose you’re waiting in line to get into a business that’s having a particularly busy day. Adding in shade features, especially natural sources like shade trees, can improve your visitor experience overall and make you feel more comfortable than potentially waiting in the sun for hours.

Shade trees, freestanding awnings, and deck umbrellas can also be helpful for courtyards and other interior outdoor spaces. They offer a retreat and make the entire area more pleasant during the periods of the day with the most intense sunshine. Most of all though, they can protect your windowed areas from the sun and use less energy by keeping the building cooler without air conditioning.

Reinforce Your Brand Image

Your organization’s outdoor landscaping can be a great way to promote your brand or messaging in subtle ways.

One of the most notable examples of this is with Walt Disney World. It’s common to see not only sculptures and hardscape features that look like the company’s characters but also flower beds shaped like their famous logo and best-known characters to provide a complete brand experience.

While you don’t necessarily need to spring for topiaries shaped like your brand’s logo or mascot, finding subtle ways to marry your branding and landscaping can improve your organization’s brand recall.

Integrate with Hardscaping & Water Features

Splash pads and misting stations have become major fixtures in commercial landscaping, especially in parks and festival grounds. These hydration stations give people of all ages a place to cool off during the hottest months of the year and allow children a safe place to play in the water.

Similarly, some commercial and public spaces also emphasize seasonality in some of their hardscaping. In addition to having benches and retaining walls where people can sit or rest all year long, some commercial areas also have fire pits and other interactive elements that encourage people to use their spaces even during the colder months.

Current Trends in Landscape Design for Commercial Buildings

In addition to the basic principles of good landscape design for commercial spaces, certain trends have begun to grow and enjoy popularity over the last several years. These are some of the most popular commercial landscaping design trends that are slowly becoming mainstays.

Accessibility Features

Many commercial landscape designers are making the push to create universally accessible outdoor spaces for their clients. The goal is to allow everyone visiting the space to enjoy the same experience across the board, especially with both physical and psychological accessibility.

At F&V, for example, our commercial landscape designers are seeing more requests for plants that help with sensory reception, or different soft and hard textures on pavement in areas like healing gardens. This allows more people of all ages and ability levels to enjoy the outdoor spaces, in turn creating better experiences with the brand for everyone.

With every project we complete, F&V strives to promote universal accessibility. Giving an equal experience to each user goes a long way and creates inclusion for every group of people.

Locally Sourced Plants

This has been a trend that has enjoyed overarching growth over the last several decades. Locally sourced and native plants from your region in Michigan or Indiana make it easier for your landscaping to stay healthy. It also helps protect the local environment by strengthening native species instead of introducing unfamiliar and invasive varieties.

Rooftop Landscaping

This is an especially popular trend in urban areas like Grand Rapids and Indianapolis. Green roofs and outdoor spaces on rooftops have become a common sight in larger cities because they allow people to visit a retreat away from the concrete jungle and experience a sense of calm and creativity.

Businesses like hotels and hospitals can incorporate rooftop gardens and green roofs into their structure to provide extra space for guests to relax. The addition of local plants and other greenery promotes a sense of harmony and is more energy-efficient and better at draining water away from the rooftop.

Water Conservation

Splash pads aren’t going away anytime soon, and misting zones are quickly emerging as a new trend. However, that water doesn’t just come in and go out of the splash pad on a continuous loop.

As these water features become more popular, more commercial landscape designers near you are looking for creative ways to conserve water, including more eco-conscious designs for fountains and water features in parks and courtyards that are both beautiful and practical.

F&V has designed splash pads that distribute water to a holding tank for irrigation instead of the sanitary sewer for a more economical and eco-friendly solution.

Color Arrangements

Having a range of different colors and shades in your commercial landscape not only improves curb appeal but also attracts more people into your garden spaces. This includes planting native flowers in a bright array of colors ranging from green to pink, as well as including unusual natural stone colors for rock structures, benches, and retaining walls.

These setups are particularly popular with hospital healing gardens and other spaces designed to provide a peaceful stimulus for the mind and soul.

F&V’s Commercial Landscape Design Services

At Fleis & VandenBrink, we’re a full-service commercial landscape design company serving Michigan and Indiana. We specialize in providing unique, functional, and beautiful landscape designs that suit your organization’s needs, whether your community needs a new splash pad or your hospital is trying to install a healing garden. With the right budget and enough imagination, we can make any of your landscaping ideas come to life.