The Wellington Hotel of Prince Edward County, opening  in 2023, will be a unique hotel /spa and restaurant in the heart of one of Ontario’s most popular vacation destinations. Sitting with 2.25 acres facing out to Lake Ontario, the original Carly House (c.1870) is a red brick Victorian Italianate home built by G.P. Dorland. VTLA was initially consulted to advise on a site boundary strategy to consider – for adjacent neighbours and the broader community – the significant changes coming to what had been a very quite residential property.  The landsacpe plans are evolving to add contemporary drama to this heritage site while nourishing forgotten soils, protecting heritage trees, enhancing habitat, and utilizing rain collection systems.

Surface textures and plantings help define the site and create a series of outdoor rooms to support various programs and local events,  welcome visiting guests and the local community.  The hotel buildings emerge within a diverse planting palette designed as a layered, connected ecology of trees, shrubs, and understory plants, with species selected in response to adjacent property plantings, privacy screening, soils and the mixed light conditions.

Coupling structured architectural design with native trees and shrubs, alongside whimsical perennial and mixed fencerow plantings that echo the borders of countless fields in Prince Edward County, the narrative of the hotel’s historic architecture is woven into the landscape design.