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Brooklyn Botanic Garden 2006 Annual Report
Capital Projects and Master Site Plan
A number of improvements to infrastructure, always crucial but perhaps not always perceptible, were undertaken throughout the year. Several paths were repaved, and the extensive bluestone renovations in the Judith D. Zuk Magnolia Plaza, on Lily Pool Terrace, and around the Eastern Parkway entrance and Osborne Garden were completed. Twenty new trash receptacles were installed throughout the Garden.
Facilities throughout the institution were repainted, and three main control valves and four branch valves in the irrigation system were replaced. Leaking roofs above the two greenhouse wings were replaced, and in the Palm House the entire glass roof was resealed and a master control panel for lighting was replaced. Improvements to the lower area and gallery of the Steinhardt Conservatory began with painting and partial restoration of the tile floor.
A limited yet significant renovation of the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum included installation of new shades, new lighting, teak display tables, additional slate tile floor space, and a reconfigured floor display for the bonsai plants. In June, a team from the Seattle architectural firm The Portico Group joined BBG staff to explore options for further improvements. Participating in this process was BBG's newly hired curator of the bonsai museum, Julian Velasco.
Plans for a new Visitor Center also continued as the conceptual phase was completed and presented to the BBG Board of Trustees for approval. One of the most significant projects included in BBG's Master Site Plan for the 21st Century, the new Visitor Center will make it possible for the Garden to welcome, orient, and educate visitors in one central place for the first time. As the entry point for the learning experience at the Garden, the center will offer exhibits, signs, and brochures to provide visitors with new ways to connect to our living collections and to the natural world.
Integrated into the northern end of the Garden and opening onto the Cherry Esplanade, the new Visitor Center will provide a welcoming entrance with improved admission and retail services, as well as other amenities geared to helping the Garden meet the needs of its expanding audience. To implement the much-anticipated design, BBG selected the New York City-based firm Weiss/Manfredi Architects, which has demonstrated a sustained commitment to using ecologically intelligent strategies to integrate landscape and architecture.
Design of the new Visitor Center and entrance has been funded in part by an early challenge grant from the Independence Community Foundation and additional support from the Achelis and Bodman Foundations, Helen V. Froehlich Foundation, Keyspan Corporation, Kresge Foundation's Green Building Initiative, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Construction of the new Visitor Center has received generous support by the City of New York, and is slated to be completed in time for the Garden's centennial celebration in 2010.