Long-awaited expansion coming to the botanical gardens

Buffalo, New York (WBEN) – As the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens embark on an expansion project for the first time in more than a century, a new brand identity is also being revealed.

CEO Mark Mortenson says the facility currently doesn’t really have the capacity to meet the needs of the community. “We’re very successful with school groups, but we don’t have enough space to properly accommodate them. Additionally, our admission area and gift shop are very, very small, and we’ve tried to leveraging our existing historic conservatory to try to support this request,” says Mortenson.

Mortenson says a new brand identity (see above) is being introduced. He says it brings a revitalized look and feel to the nonprofit, including a new logo, updated mission and vision statements and a refreshed color palette. In addition, the Botanical Garden launched its new website to reinforce its new identity for the future.

Mortenson says he worked with 19 Ideas to find the identity. “What they did was they surveyed members of the community about how they saw us here at the Botanical Gardens. They also surveyed our members and then the general public about their impressions. They took all this data and broke down our personality types.” Mortenson explains.

He says the Botanic Gardens actually uses the branding as a wayfinding mechanism when launching new exhibits within the Living Museum: “The branding and graphics will be featured throughout the Living Museum, which will help present a sort of holistic graphics. personality to visitors coming to the gardens,” adds Mortenson.

The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens opened in 1900. The historic conservatory was designed by Lord & Burnham and is located within a park system conceptualized by Frederick Law Olmstead in the 1800s.