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Construction begins early next year for the privately funded Jack Taylor Visitor’s Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Although it’s a two-year project, the garden will be open throughout construction, and visitors will always enter through a permanent structure.
The new center will create an iconic building and landscape that embraces the importance of sustainability. Officials say the current center has served well over the years, but is designed for only a fraction of the growing number of visitors who come to the garden annually. The garden now welcomes nearly 1 million visitors each year, compared to 250,000, when in opened in 1982.
The new entrance will be more accessible, with benches for gathering and resting, wide pathways and additional drop-off areas. The shop will offer outdoor plants, and dining options will include a grab-and-go location, as well as a sit-down café that will have expansive views of the garden.
The new building will also provide more space for private meetings and events, including a separate area for large private events and additional space for groups to gather before entering the garden.
The landscape will be even more diverse in terms of numbers of species of plants, and will include a permanent, year-round conservatory.
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