Expansion: TBG Names Design Supergroup

PMA Landscape Architects will lead 18 firms in 15 garden disciplines, says Garden Director Harry Jongerden

DRUM ROLL!!!!! Music lovers of a certain age will remember the term “supergroup”. It’s when rock stars broke away from their bands and joined together in a new band formed of stars. Think of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Traveling Wilburys–even The Three Tenors. They produced amazing music despite the egos that had to be kept in check. So in honour of Ginger Baker, drummer for Cream, the very first band to be acknowledged as a “supergroup” ………..drum roll!!!!!!

We are ready to announce our detailed design team. Indeed, we are introducing TBG’s very own design “supergroup”. Many of them are stars in their various fields—landscape architecture, architecture, garden design, plant expertise, ecological restoration and more. The project team involves 18 firms representing 15 different disciplines. Of course, you would expect to see landscape architects and garden designers, but we will also have lighting designers, heritage consultants and food services experts, among many others.

You know many of the TBG design supergroup already, our stars having worked on TBG before, and on numerous significant projects in Toronto and beyond. The lead firm is the renowned Toronto firm, PMA Landscape Architects, known to many of you as the lead consultants for TBG’s original four-acre expansion in 2005. They also participated in the original 2014 proposal to expand the garden, the “Integrated Conceptual Proposals”. PMA and its team will be creating garden beauty to be enjoyed for generations to come.

This column doesn’t have room to name the whole design team, but some other notables are Gow Hastings as lead architects; Frontier as interpretation master planners; and Dougan & Associates as ecological restoration experts. We also have two highly regarded local individual experts to advise the project in the areas of conservation and native plants.

Detailed design for Phase I of TBG’s expansion will involve the complex coordination of many players and moving parts, including the participation of key stakeholders such as TRCA (conservation authority) and our City partners. It all gets underway this spring thanks to the generous support of key donors who have stepped forward to fund this most important aspect of our expansion. Perhaps the analogy to a rock supergroup doesn’t do our project justice. How about an orchestra instead? But if we’re switching musical analogies, I won’t settle for anything less than the Berlin Philharmonic. We’re going to be making some very beautiful music here as TBG enters into the first phase of our expansion.