The entryway to your commercial property is your first opportunity to greet your tenants, employees, customers and visitors. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that the landscape around it is top-notch in every way – from the overall design and plants to the built features and how it draws the visitor in. As a commercial property owner or manager responsible for the landscape, you should always start with the arrival experience and the main point of entry.
Here are 7 reasons why the entryway is the most crucial commercial landscape area and tips for making it stellar:
- First impressions matter - First impressions apply just as much to your landscape as it does to people. In fact, your landscape is often the first thing a visitor sees, even before they interact with employees. Worn areas, dead or dying plants, lack of color, and a ho-hum appearance speaks volumes about your company’s professionalism and how much it cares about the people who come to your property every day. Not to mention how much interest the company has for our environment. Spend a little more money on your entryway to make a lot better impression.
- High traffic means high importance - Your main entryway is the focal point of public interaction. With tenants and visitors coming and going, it gets heavy use and even abuse. To ensure that landscape maintenance doesn’t drain your resources, design your entryway with plants and materials that can stand up to environmental elements such as foot traffic and harsh weather conditions. It’s important to design and install a landscape that resists wear-and-tear and remains both beautiful and functional.
- Multiple opportunities to influence people - Your main entryway is your building’s face to the world. Make sure your landscape is a warm and welcoming smile and not a dull and dreary frown that creates a negative impression and acts as a deterrent to people feeling happy when they arrive. Healthy, vibrant plants have a positive impact on most humans; this is a documented truth. Use this to your advantage.
- Your entryway is a billboard for your business - The landscape at your building’s entryway advertises your commercial property just like a billboard. Would you put a giant picture of an overflowing front-entrance cigarette canister or brown, crushed and lifeless plants up on the highway for all to see? Of course not. So don’t advertise your commercial property with a landscape that’s less than flattering or worse ugly and sad. Take this opportunity to express respect for your people and for the environment by making this space vibrant. It will be noticed!
- A dynamic entryway for a dynamic business - If your facility is open year-round, you want your entryway to be just as attractive and interesting in the winter months as it is at the height of the growing season in the summer. A static landscape equals a static business. Instead, create dynamic seasonal connection with something fresh and interesting at least four times a year. If your property is in a geographic region that precludes blooms in the winter months, opt for plants and seasonal planters with interesting or colorful bare branches and shapes to provide visual interest in the off season.
- A mood enhancer - A well-designed and maintained landscape is a thing of beauty that can improve the mood of everyone who comes in contact with it. A cheerful landscape can help create cheerful people. Employees become happier and more productive, customers become more positive and willing to spend more money. You are a cheerful member of you community even for people just passing by.
- A vibrant entryway creates positive energy - Healthy plants and a balanced, integrated landscape design creates a subtle energy and vibrancy that builds positive energy around the entire space. Think of it as Feng Shui for your landscape. While that may not be your cup of tea, remember humans have co-evolved with Nature for more years than we can count. Tap into this wisdom and trust that you have the power to put positivity into the world with something as simple as healthy, vibrant plants!
Tweetable Tip: Make sure your landscape is a warm and welcoming smile and not a dull and dreary frown http://ctt.ec/9nfgy+
As you can see, to optimize the entryway of your commercial building, it’s important to consider everything that may affect your landscape design, including transitions, traffic, and the actual amount of space visitors will need to comfortably enter your building. To learn more landscape design strategies for your office and residential buildings, please download the free eBook.
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