THUNDER BAY — The City of Thunder Bay’s Centennial Botanical Conservatory is under renovation.
Opened in 1967, the Fort William Parks Board built the conservatory as a Centennial celebration project.
Now, renovations will work as part of a three-phase process to improve accessibility and renew the facility for years to come.
Gui Walter, the city’s landscape architect, said they started the redesign in late fall of 2020.
“In pre-phase one, we replaced the existing cold frame greenhouses so we can start the phase one reconstruction, which was the demolition of the existing greenhouses and that enabled us to move forward, build that out, so we can do the renovation of the entire tropical collection, cacti and the main display greenhouses,” said Walter.
These three greenhouses were initially used for production, where they grow all the plants for the parks and stormwater management areas throughout the city.
With the renovations, he said, they have become a single gutter, double greenhouse — a highly-efficient facility with a brain, their automated control system.
The initial budget for Phase One came under budget at $4.2 million, but Phase Two, which includes some of Phase Three, will cost an additional $7.2 million.
However, Walter said it is a real challenge when ‘you’re ripping down an enclosure for tropical plants in our climate.’
“It’s been a real challenge but actually an exciting learning process. In the main tropical house, we’ve got some fig trees, we’ve got palm trees, we’ve got a ton of plants. We’ve got, I think, a total of 240 different species in here and also in the cacti and succulent wing, which is the west wing that we’re currently unwrapping the hoarding,” said Walter.
“They’re going to see daylight again because we replaced both wings entirely, we’ve probably got another 70 different species in there and we’ve got some fairly rare quite valuable plants in there which we’ve protected and preserved."
Walter said he relies on the professional staff of horticulture specialists to maintain and keep the plants alive.
“Quite a few of the plants are actually priceless. We wouldn’t be able to replace them. For us to get a plant in to replace, we’d be looking at buying a specimen that is not of the same value,” said Walter. “So, the key is with a couple of these smaller, very high-value plants that we could move or protect, probably a couple of our cacti were the most valuable at that point.”
There are also many new renovations for the tropical house and two wings, including replacing the original single-pane glass with double-wall acrylate to protect the plants in the summer heat and provide greater insulation.
While the east wing will now become a multi-purpose space that can host year-round events, the west wing will fully reopen to the public to showcase its cacti collection, which was mostly preserved and protected but now also largely repropagating in the greenhouses.
Walter said this is a big part of the renewal of this facility.
“Both those wings have been closed for almost 10 years, so they haven’t seen the public other than looking through the doors,” said Walter.
Beyond these renovations, Walter explained that the conservatory will also add seasonal display installations, fully accessible walkways and new features to the central pond, including lighting features and environmental controls similar to the greenhouses.
Some of these environmental controls will include ridge vents, side louvres, humidity controls and lighting, all controlled by the brain.
There will also be lighting displays fully controlled by the team for seasonal events and exhibitions.
Walter said they’re looking at a soft reopening from early to late fall and hopefully a grand opening almost a year from now with an on-site celebration just before next Christmas.
He said he can’t wait for people to 'get into the conservatory, enjoy it again and keep driving by.'
