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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2003 Annual Report
BBG Master Plan
As Brooklyn Botanic Garden enters the 21st century and looks forward to its second century, the Board of Trustees and staff have closely reviewed its many assets as well as carefully assessed areas that need to be restored, upgraded, and enhanced to ensure the Garden's role as one of the world's leading urban botanic gardens. BBG's master plan, developed in 1999–2000 in partnership with Cooper, Robertson & Partners through generous underwriting from the LuEsther Mertz Trust and Helen V. Froehlich Foundation, is an ambitious but well-considered blueprint for the future. It includes significant improvements to BBG's physical facilities and research capabilities, as well as new and enhanced gardens. It also seeks to improve the Garden's face to the neighborhood through renovation and redesign of its entrances—improving access and visibility and making stronger connections to our neighboring cultural institutions. BBG hopes to realize many of these projects in the next 10 to 15 years to carry the Garden forward into the next 100 years as a vibrant cultural, community, and scientific resource.
A digital rendering of the new Eastern Parkway entrance. Designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, the entrance unites architecture and horticulture to create a more visible and welcoming point of entry for Garden visitors.
In 2003, BBG broke ground on the redesign of its Eastern Parkway entrance, the first major new project of the master plan, and began restoration of the Osborne Garden and Magnolia Plaza in keeping with their original historic designs while adding much-needed upgrades to the utilities, irrigation, and drainage in these areas. Scheduled for completion in 2004, these projects are generously funded by an allocation of $6.5 million from the City of New York thanks to the support of the Brooklyn Borough President and the Brooklyn delegation of the City Council, through the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Design and Construction.
BBG's new Eastern Parkway entrance will create a welcoming public plaza and architectural gateway to the Garden. Designed by the internationally acclaimed firm Polshek Partnership Architects, the new entry will greatly improve the flow of traffic entering and exiting the Garden to accommodate growing visitation. Visitors will approach the Garden across an enlarged plaza that incorporates benches and new plantings. Ticketing and information will be located in two low, curvilinear wings set into landscaped berms, which will render them invisible from inside the Garden. The wings and gates will be constructed of stainless steel patterned with cherry leaves and branches. The centerpiece of the new entrance plaza will be a 50-foot-high spire made of cast glass, inspired by various organic structures such as pinecones and the pistil of a flower. The sculpture and gates will be gently illuminated at night. The overall design of the entrance unites architecture and horticulture while respecting the historic nature of the Garden. The existing Eastern Parkway gates will be restored and will be incorporated into a future design for another area of the Garden. Alongside the Brooklyn Museum of Art's new public plaza, also designed by Polshek Partnership Architects and scheduled to open in 2004, the Garden's new gateway will be an elegant addition to the surrounding Eastern Parkway neighborhood, which is undergoing a renaissance.