If you manage an office park in Greater Chicago, you know you want to be competitive and attract and retain great businesses.
Just as your interior is essential to your corporate campus clients, so is your exterior. Your landscape must reflect a professional and positive brand — whether sleek and modern, natural and eco-friendly, or traditional and formal.
The right plant selection, hardscape materials, and design elements can create a cohesive look that aligns with your building’s architecture and image.
But what kind of commercial landscaping spaces work best for corporate campuses? These types of multi-use outdoor areas and work-friendly outdoor environments seem to draw the most return on investment:
- Welcoming Entryways & Signage
- Large-Scale Green Spaces
- Walkways & Connectivity
- Outdoor Work & Social Spaces
- Sustainable Planting Design
- Water Features
- Branded Landscape Elements
- Seasonal & Year-Round Appeal
- Stormwater Management & Resilient Design
- Safety & Security Integration
- Parking Lot & Perimeter Landscaping
- Minimal Maintenance & Cost Efficiency
Let’s discuss commercial landscape projects for office parks and corporate campuses and how the right design can transform your property.
The Best Landscaping For Corporate Campuses
You want a more welcoming work environment for your employees. Why? It drives their productivity, satisfaction, and engagement.
Commercial landscaping is an important investment for any company due to its many benefits, including its ability to enhance curb appeal, increase property value, elevate brand images, and improve employee attendance and output.
Moreover, incorporating greenery, natural elements, and inspired commercial landscape design can transform a dull workplace into an inspiring one.
The following upgrades to your corporate workspace can ensure maximum benefits.
Welcoming Entryways and Signage
A well-landscaped entrance with trees, colorful plantings, and clear signage creates a strong first impression. Nothing draws people in more than color, after all. And at your entrances are the best places to add the most color for full effect.
Well-constructed entry monuments, stone walls, and signage surrounded by seasonal flowers or low-maintenance shrubs enhance visibility in your commercial landscaping.
You can also add colorful plants around common areas to boost employee spirits. Changing out this color a few times a year keeps your property looking fresh and dynamic year-round.
Large-Scale Green Spaces
As part of your commercial landscape design, open lawns and naturalized plantings create a welcoming, relaxing environment for employees and visitors.
They also provide flexible spaces for events, social gatherings, and recreation.
Walkways and Connectivity
A well-planned pedestrian network improves accessibility and encourages employees to move around. Broad, well-lit pedestrian paths encourage walking between buildings and outdoor spaces.
This commercial landscape project, with wide sidewalks, decorative pavers, shaded paths, and nature trails, boosts physical and mental well-being. These elements add character and support stormwater management.
Outdoor Work and Social Spaces
Employees benefit from commercial landscaping spaces that support outdoor meetings, dining, and quiet work. After all, interaction is the heartbeat of a thriving outdoor space. Incorporating areas that promote communication can impress clients and invigorate employees.
Seating areas, picnic tables, and shaded patios allow employees to work or relax outdoors. Wi-Fi-enabled workspaces with comfortable seating encourage productivity in fresh air. Patios with tables, fire pits, or pergolas to encourage relaxation and interaction.
Green spaces can also increase job satisfaction. Other features include courtyards, seating areas with shade structures, outdoor Wi-Fi zones, and rooftop terraces.
Sustainable Planting Design
Sustainability isn't just a buzzword. It's an essential component in today’s commercial landscaping that conserves resources and reduces long-term costs.
Using drought-resistant plants, native species, and pollinator-friendly species in your commercial landscape design lowers water usage, decreases environmental impact, and keeps maintenance costs in check.
These areas can include native prairie grasses, seasonal flower beds, bioswales, and rain gardens. Rain gardens collect and absorb runoff from rooftops, walkways, and compacted lawn areas. This effectively manages stormwater and helps create an environment supporting local wildlife and creating a unique visual appeal.
Water Features
Water elements like small fountains, ponds, or reflecting pools create a calming atmosphere, helping to reduce stress and enhance the campus aesthetic.
These commercial landscape design elements can also include stormwater retention ponds with naturalized edges and wetland plants to improve drainage and biodiversity.
Branded Landscape Elements
Commercial landscaping can reinforce corporate identity and culture by incorporating brand colors, logos, or signature design elements. Unique installations foster creativity and corporate individuality. Replacing or updating outdated signage can add some curb appeal to your corporate campus.
Some ideas include custom signage, planters with company colors, sculptures, or themed gardens.
Seasonal and Year-Round Appeal
To maintain an inviting environment, a campus should remain visually attractive in all seasons.
This means it needs landscaping for a corporate campus that includes evergreen trees, ornamental grasses, colorful fall foliage, and strategic seasonal flower rotations to keep the landscape attractive all year.
Rotating seasonal flower beds near entrances and gathering areas add vibrant color.
Stormwater Management and Resilient Design
Corporate campuses generate significant runoff due to the inclusion of large buildings and parking lots.
Sustainable drainage elements of commercial landscape design, including permeable pavers, rain gardens, bioswales, and green roofs, help prevent flooding and reduce environmental impact.
Drip irrigation and rain sensors can also be included in smarter irrigation to optimize water usage.
Safety and Security Integration
Well-lit and strategically planted commercial landscaping improves security while maintaining an inviting feel. Thoughtful planning and strategic placement of landscaping elements are essential for ensuring outdoor spaces are visually appealing, secure, and safe to navigate, even after sunset.
Features include low plantings near building entrances, security-friendly tree placement, and LED pathway and accent lighting to ensure safety after dark while highlighting landscape features. You can also integrate lighting into hardscape elements like steps, walls, and signage.
An example of the proper plant placement is low-growing shrubs near entryways and security cameras to maintain visibility. Employee safety elements can include the installation of emergency call stations and well-lit pedestrian areas.
Lighting can also bring some evening ambiance to your space. You can use the lights to feature a unique tree or angle them to highlight aspects of your building that might not stand out as well during daylight hours. Don't forget to light your signage to ensure your brand is visible at night.
Parking Lot and Perimeter Landscaping
Shade trees in parking lots can reduce heat and improve air quality as part of your commercial landscaping.
Buffer plantings and berms along roads and fences provide privacy and noise reduction.
Minimal Maintenance and Cost Efficiency
Large campuses require smart large landscape construction design to minimize maintenance costs while keeping properties attractive.
Some parts of this can include automated irrigation systems, low-maintenance plant selections, and durable hardscapes.
Weather-resistant materials like concrete, metal, and composite wood can promote long-term durability.
We Can Help You With Landscaping for Your Corporate Campus in Greater Chicago
As you can see, the look and state of your office park’s grounds tell clients and employees a lot about how things are run on the inside.
The outdoor space is the first and last thing people see when they visit your site, so make sure it represents what goes on inside your company. If it’s not, you could lose business and top-notch team members. The lack of great landscaping can lower employee morale, creating unhappy and unmotivated workers.
Research has shown that even the simple presence of plants can significantly improve concentration and well-being, leading to a happier and more productive workforce.
Being proactive and planning to target certain areas will keep your commercial landscaping up-to-date and engaging and prevent your facility from becoming uncompetitive and outdated.
We hope these ideas inspire you for your Greater Chicago office park. And if you struggle to determine which one to try, that’s OK. KD Landscape can help. Finding the perfect partner who understands your needs and office park challenges can be hard.
Let us take that to-do off of your list. We can recommend landscape ideas for your corporate campus that are best for your needs and goals and provide the maintenance necessary to create that quality, professional look you’re seeking that fits within your budget.
Want to learn more about commercial landscape design in Greater Chicago? Schedule an on-site consultation today. We’ll review your options together so you can make a wise choice.
