Hours & Admissions

General Grounds

November 8, 2011–March 11, 2012

• Tuesday–Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• Closed Mondays (but open Martin Luther King Jr. Day and
  Washington's Birthday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.)
• Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day

March 13, 2012–November 4, 2012

• Tuesday–Friday: 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Closed Mondays (but open Memorial Day and
  Columbus Day, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)
• Closed Labor Day

Last admission into the Garden is 30 minutes before closing time.

Steinhardt Conservatory, Gallery, & Garden Gift Shops

Open Tuesday through Sunday:

• November–Mid-March: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Mid-March–October: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Visitor Center

Open Tuesday through Sunday:

• November–Mid-March: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Mid-March–October: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Gardener's Resource Center

• Tuesday–Friday: 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Art and Garden Ticket

Enhance your day in Brooklyn by visiting our neighbor, the Brooklyn Museum! Simply buy an Art and Garden ticket here at Brooklyn Botanic Garden and present your receipt for same-day admission to the Brooklyn Museum.

The Brooklyn Museum's admission is suggested. Tickets are not refundable.

Restrictions

• Art and Garden combination tickets are valid only on the purchase date.
• There is no combination ticket for children under 12 years of age. Children under 12 enter for free.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is committed to making its exhibitions, programs and services accessible to all who visit, and is working to make its gardens and facilities accessible. However, due to the historic nature of much of the Garden, some areas may present challenges to those with ambulatory disabilities.

Entrance/Paths

The front section of the parking lot is reserved for visitors who are mobility challenged. Visitors in wheelchairs can enter the Garden using any of the public entrances when the Garden is open. After hours, persons in wheelchairs should exit through the Administration Building at 1000 Washington Avenue.

BBG's grounds are accessible by paved pathways throughout the Garden. Garden areas can be reached in a variety of ways, including stair-free options for most specialty gardens. However, due to the historic nature of the Garden, certain paths may be narrow, rough, uneven or steep.

Alice Recknagel Ireys Fragrance Garden

Created in 1955 and enjoyed by all visitors to Brooklyn Botanic Garden, this was the first garden in the country designed for the sight-impaired. Visitors are encouraged to touch and smell the plants, which have been selected for fragrant or tactile qualities and are all non-toxic. Plants are grown in elevated beds at just the right height for persons in wheelchairs. A continuous metal railing offers guidance, and Braille labels identify the specimens.

Find out more about the Alice Recknagel Ireys Fragrance Garden.

Education Programs

The Garden provides learning opportunities for visitors of all ages. Experienced educators work with both children and adults at all developmental and cognitive levels. BBG's education programs can be adapted for students with special needs.

Education greenhouses have hydraulic, height-adjustable potting tables that enable all students to work comfortably.

When scheduling a school visit to BBG, please notify the Registration Office about the learning or physical needs of your students. BBG offers discounted fees for special-needs programs; please ask about this when you register. For more information, call 718-623-7220.

In addition, the GreenBridge Therapeutic Horticulture Network offers practitioners of horticulture therapy a forum for gathering at the Garden and exchanging ideas on how to use horticulture to promote healing. For more information on this network, call 718-623-7209.

Garden Tours and Public Programs

Guided tours, led by extensively trained Garden Guides, are available for all exhibitions and special programs to ensure that individuals with a range of abilities can experience BBG's events. Tours tailored to visitors with physical or developmental challenges can also be arranged. Call 718-623-7220 for more information.

On special Public Program days, accommodation in performance areas can be made for visitors in wheelchairs or with limited mobility.

Visitor Services

The Visitor Center, Terrace Café, and Garden Shop are all accessible by wheelchair. The Gift Shop is accessed through the Administrative Building entrance at 1000 Washington Avenue. An elevator that provides access to the auditorium and the Gardener's Resource Center is also located in the Administrative Building.

The Steinhardt Conservatory lower-level Gallery, Desert Pavilion, Tropical Pavilion, and Warm Temperate Pavilion can be reached by elevator.

Uniformed security guards, stationed at each entrance and traversing the grounds, can help direct visitors to appropriate facilities and resources.

Restrooms

Restrooms for use by our visitors in wheelchairs are located in the Conservatory.

Wheelchairs

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden provides wheelchairs as a courtesy to our guests. They are provided on a first come first serve basis. A valid drivers license or government issued picture I.D. card is needed in order to furnish you with a wheelchair. Your ID will be held and returned to you when you return the wheelchair.

bbg.org

The Garden's website is accessible—and usable—for all Internet users and for the full range of browsing platforms and devices such as screen readers, PDAs, and mobile phones. In 2004, bbg.org was honored with the Talking Hands Award for combining Section 508 compliance with creative excellence. For more information, see BBG's accessibility statement.

Expansion

The Garden's Master Site Plan considers accessibility in all aspects of its design.

Contact Us

If you have questions or comments about accessibility at BBG, please contact presidentsoffice@bbg.org or call 718-623-7269.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a museum of living plants. The following policies were designed to protect the plant collection and enhance the experience of all visitors.

When planning your visit, please note:

• Children under 14 must be supervised by an adult 18 or over.
• With the exception of bottled water and baby bottles, food and beverages cannot be brought into the Garden. Food can be purchased and consumed at the Terrace Café. Picnicking is not allowed.
• Sitting on the lawn is only allowed at the Cherry Esplanade. Blankets and folding chairs are not permitted.
• No athletic or recreational equipment is allowed.
• Pets are not allowed. Service animals must have accompanying documentation.
• Tripods and easels are not permitted in the Conservatory, the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, in flower beds, or blocking any Garden paths. Commercial and wedding photography is only permitted by prior arrangement.
• Strollers are allowed in the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery (including bathrooms and Café) but not allowed in the Steinhardt Conservatory pavilions.
• Strollers are not allowed in the shops from April–June.

While in the Garden, please note:

• Brooklyn Botanic Garden is a nonsmoking facility. Please refrain from smoking anywhere on the grounds.
• Do not pick flowers, walk in the planted beds, or climb trees. Fallen leaves, flowers, or other plant materials must be left on the ground.
• Use electronic audio devices with earphones only.
• Shirts and shoes are required.

Q: Why are you building a new Visitor Center?
As Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) marks its centennial, we are preparing for the next century of service to our neighborhood, our borough, and our approximately 725,000 annual visitors who come from near and far. The new Visitor Center is one of a series of strategically planned Garden-wide projects that are based on community service, sustainability, and ecologically sound practices. The new Visitor Center addresses the need to update facilities from earlier decades that are no longer meeting the needs of a major cultural institution. The redesigned entrance will help BBG better welcome and orient its growing audience, beautify surrounding streetscapes, and provide easier access for all visitors.

The new space will house an array of exhibits to welcome visitors to BBG and set them up for a great visit! Visitors will be able to discover what plants are in bloom and explore the science and aesthetics of the plant world. They can also learn what is happening at the Garden and how to extend their experience through our ongoing array of activities for all ages. The new Visitor Center will house a new garden shop, an orientation room for tours and classes, an information desk, more restrooms, and an event space.

In July 2009, the Public Design Commission of the City of New York honored the building's design (by architects Weiss/Manfredi) with its Award for Excellence in Design, citing the superb integration of form, function, and sustainable practice.

Q: Will it be a “green” building?
Yes! The new Visitor Center aspires to LEED Gold certification. (The U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design [LEED] Green Building Rating System is the recognized standard in the United States for achievement and excellence in sustainable design.)

Green features will include a “living roof” that utilizes a range of native and drought-resistant plants, which provide energy savings, as well as vibrant seasonal displays that help the building blend into its natural surroundings. The Visitor Center will model green building practices with recycled materials, passive solar principles, stormwater management, and geothermal heating and cooling.

Q: How will it affect the plants in that area?
The majority of the Visitor Center's footprint is over a berm, a large “wall” of earth that constitutes BBG's northern border. The berm does not contain any plant collections. The Visitor Center footprint also includes the former Herb Garden site, a ginkgo tree (which was moved earlier this year—see below for more info), and part of the Tree Peony collection, which has been successfully transplanted just a few yards away from its original site. Hundreds of new plants—including over 80 trees and 300 shrubs—will be added to the Garden's collections as part of the project, and about five trees existing on the site will be harvested with the intention of incorporating their wood into the Visitor Center's interior carpentry.

Q: How will construction affect the visitor experience? Will you be closed?
No, we won't! BBG will remain open per its regular seasonal hours throughout the duration of construction, which will take about two years. The 900 Washington Avenue entrance will be closed during construction, but a currently unused service gate about 50 feet further down Washington Avenue will be opened to the public and clearly marked.

Q: How will the Visitor Center affect the BBG experience once it's completed?
The Visitor Center will enhance the visitor experience by providing a single site where visitors can receive information about the Garden and its plant collections and programs, buy an admission ticket, or purchase a membership. Once in the Garden, visitors will notice that the Visitor Center is designed to meld into the Garden landscape and function as a seamless extension of the path system. The western part of the Visitor Center, which is a glass event space, will look toward some of BBG's cherry trees, but not impose on the natural serenity of the Esplanade.

Q: Where will it be?
The Visitor Center will be located at far northeast corner of BBG, on the site of the former Herb Garden, which was relocated (see below for more info), nestled into the existing berm and blending into the environment. The new Washington Avenue entrance will significantly open up the Garden to the community directly to the east.

Q: When will it open?
The Visitor Center is slated to open two years after construction begins.

Q: Who designed the new Visitor Center?
The building is the design of the award-winning New York City architectural firm of Weiss/Manfredi, who are known throughout the world for their sensitive integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design. Other highly regarded recent projects include the Seattle Art Museum's celebrated Olympic Sculpture Park, Barnard College's Diana Center, and the Wandering Ecologies project at Toronto's Lower Don Lands. These projects and others have garnered Weiss/Manfredi a number of prestigious awards and honors, such the American Architecture Award in 2008 and 2009, Architecture Magazine's 2008 Progressive Architecture Award, the Travel + Leisure 2008 Design Award for Best Cultural Space, and several accolades from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Q: Why are you doing this now, given the current economic climate, instead of putting more money into other programs?
The Visitor Center is a product of ten years of planning, stemming from the articulation of BBG's Master Site Plan in 2000. The project is being generously funded with lead support from the city, in the form of capital funds that were allocated several years ago, and additional early private leadership support from revenue streams restricted to this use. Simply put, the Visitor Center is being built with funds that are entirely separate from the operating money that supports BBG's plant collections and programs.

Q: What will happen to the current Visitor Center?
BBG's landmarked 1917 McKim, Mead and White administration building, which houses the existing Visitor Center, will continue to be well used for office, classroom, and other program space.

Q: What happened to the big ginkgo tree that was there?
In November 2008, BBG worked with Perfection Tree Experts—known for their success in moving large, historic trees—to move the 70-foot ginkgo about 200 feet westward, where is stands healthy today. In consultation with BBG's arborists, Perfection isolated a 20-foot root ball before using a system of steel pipes and beams to drag the ginkgo to its new home.