MBTW celebrates five decades of doing business this year!

Since its beginnings in 1975, The MBTW Group has actively participated in over 3900 Canadian and International projects.

The story begins with Frank Milus, the firm's original managing partner. He was born in New Jersey but emigrated to Canada in the mid-1960s after completing a diverse academic career that took him to Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, and finally the University of Michigan, where he earned his Master of Landscape Architecture.

Following brief positions with Lawrence Halprin and Associates in San Francisco and the US Military, Frank was recruited to the Toronto office of Project Planning and Associates (PPA), which at that time was Canada’s leading multi-disciplinary consulting practice. After rising to become PPA’s Director of Landscape Architecture, Frank left in 1968 to establish his own one-person design office. Simultaneously, he took on the role of Assistant Professor and fourth-year studio coordinator in the newly launched Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Toronto.

It was at the University of Toronto that Frank first met Pat Bollenberghe, a student who had recently transferred from the architecture program. Recognizing Pat's design talent and graphic skills, Frank quickly recruited him to help with his rapidly growing, though still part-time, design practice. To manage the increasing workload, Pat went on to recruit Alex Topps and David McWhirter from the third-year studio. Upon graduating, Pat officially joined the practice and was soon promoted to junior partner. Alex followed a year later and quickly became the second junior partner. Although David McWhirter initially chose to join another well-established local design firm, he returned within a few years and rapidly advanced to Senior Associate, contributing his exceptional technical expertise and mentoring skills to every significant office project throughout his long and successful career.

By late 1975, the firm made the decision to rebrand as Milus Bollenberghe Topps, Landscape Architects, commonly known as MBT. Over the following years, MBT experienced rapid growth and established itself as a leading force in environmental planning and open space design. The firm undertook significant master planning projects across the country, including Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, Goldbar Ravine Park along the North Saskatchewan River, William Switzer Provincial Park near Hinton, Alberta, and a groundbreaking beach restoration and nourishment project at Parlee Beach Provincial Park in New Brunswick. By the end of the decade, MBT had also expanded significantly in southern Ontario, becoming a dominant player in community planning, park design, and open space planning. The firm was particularly noted for its large-scale integrated suburban developments, including Erin Mills in Mississauga, Glen Abbey Community in Oakville, and several others.

In the early 1980s, the partners intensified their advocacy efforts to integrate landscape architects into the fields of urban design and planning more fully. By 1984, architect Garry Watchorn joined the firm to help develop this expanded vision of professional practice. As a result, the firm was rebranded as The MBTW Group, Landscape Architects and Urban Designers. This change allowed the firm to operate as a full-service consulting entity, capable of effectively addressing environmental, land development, and urban design projects of all scales.

The MBTW Group currently has a staff roster of over 55 professionals and is overseen by 5 partners. We continue to uphold the vision of the founding partners, that is, to leverage our creative team's talent to respond to a broad spectrum of projects, including urban landscapes and high profile urban place making, waterfronts, high-density residential and mixed-use developments, new communities, parks and trails, golf course design and performance sports and recreation. MBTW has and continues to offer boutique consulting services to our clients, proudly providing custom, viable and innovative design solutions.

Join us in celebrating this milestone year! There is so much more to come!