July 17, 2009: Vol. 32, No. 29

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July 17, 2009 / Brooklyn news / Not Just Nets / Prospect Heights

Botanic Garden to get a new face

Weiss/Manfredi

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is moving ahead with a renovation of its dour Washington Avenue entrance.

By Jacob Kleinman

for The Brooklyn Paper

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is about to break ground on a new, transparent, glass-walled structure — but it’s not a new greenhouse, it’s a spiffy new Washington Avenue entrance.

The visitor’s center, which will open in 2011, will include a new gift shop, snack bar, orientation room for tours, an oval shaped room for special events, and, of course, panoramic views of the garden.

“We’re enhancing the visitor experience,” said Frank Montez, vice president of facilities, planning and construction. “The services we provided will be given even more prominence, larger space and more resources.”

The 22,000-square-foot building will be constructed using recycled materials and will feature a green roof, making it the garden’s first environmentally friendly building.

The living roof is an example of how the visitor’s center is “combining exceptional beauty with a level of environmentally sustainable measures that assure this is a model of how to build in the 21st century,” said Frederick Bland, board chairman

“The new visitor center will physically embody our institutional commitment to conservation,” added Scot Medbury, president of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

The new building is just one of several changes coming to the garden in celebration of its centennial.

There will also be new space devoted to an herb garden, a woodland garden, and a water garden in time for the year-long birthday celebration.

←Cyclones: Cyclones lost today — with another game later tonight

→Bay Ridge: Two Ridge parks to be spruced (yes that pun was intended!)

Reader Feedback

Brooklyn Boy from Prospect Heights says:

Looks great and I appreciate that it doesn't change the overlook or esplanade - two of my favorite places. I am particularly excited about the new Herb Garden with beloved Knot - it looks like its coming along nicely. anyone know when this will be open?

July 17, 2009, 11:23 am

John says:

Which entrance is this on Washington?

July 17, 2009, 12:41 pm

John from All Brooklyn says:

I hope the new wall will have aesthetic presence, and not look tacky and flimsy like the Eastern Parkway entrance to the garden or the Brooklyn Museum entrance and fountain.

July 17, 2009, 1:42 pm

Peter from Windsor Terrace says:

Is the new all glass structure Brooklyn Botanic Garden Visitor Center going to have inherent anti bird collison ability ? For to say it having a green design that does not account for bird deaths resulting from birds seeing reflective landscape in the glass is not truly a Green Design..The glass should have composites that isnt reflective to prevnt bird collisions.

July 30, 2009, 1:46 pm

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