WITH AWARD-WINNING DESIGN BY WEISS/MANFREDI
Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is pleased to announce that on May 16, 2012, it will open its new Visitor Center, a key component of the most significant renewal effort at the Garden since its founding over a century ago. Designed by the innovative New York–based firm Weiss/Manfredi, the project was recognized by the New York City Public Design Commission with a 2008 Award for Excellence in Design.
The Visitor Center is a remarkable synthesis of architecture and landscape design, replacing a modest gate on Washington Avenue with an enticing entry into the 52-acre garden and housing interpretive exhibits and a room for orienting tour groups; a dramatic, leaf-shaped event space; an expanded store offering garden-related products and plants; and other visitor amenities. Conceived as a seamless extension of the Garden’s landscape, the sinuous glass building is embedded in an existing hillside at the Garden’s northeast corner. Composed of two linked forms that seem to appear, disappear, and change shape as the visitor moves through and around them, the building offers a new sequence of views into and through the Garden. In addition, the Visitor Center incorporates numerous environmentally sustainable features—most notably a 10,000-square-foot living roof—that are aimed toward earning LEED Gold certification.
“The Visitor Center is both an extension and elevation of the Garden’s topography, softening the transition from city to garden—and allowing us a significant new way to model how plants can fit into urban environments,” said Scot Medbury, president of Brooklyn Botanic Garden. “It enhances BBG’s ability to welcome a growing audience and continues our longstanding commitment to fostering connections with our neighboring communities.”
“This dynamic new Visitor Center will teach audiences about horticulture through cutting-edge, green infrastructure,” said NYC Cultural Affairs commissioner Kate D. Levin. “The city was pleased to play a part in this public-private partnership, which will welcome even more audiences from across the five boroughs and beyond to experience the Garden’s spectacular collections.”
In response to increased attendance at the Garden, ongoing revitalization in Brooklyn, and growing interest in urban horticulture and sustainability, BBG is in the midst of creating a suite of new and enhanced gardens, facilities, and programs. Other notable projects include a new Herb Garden, a Woodland Garden, and an expanded Native Flora Garden. In addition, an ambitious series of renovations at the southern end of BBG will be soon under way, including a new Water Garden, water conservation project, and new children’s Discovery Garden designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, as well as an expanded and redesigned public entrance at Flatbush Avenue by Architecture Research Office.
Visitor Center Design and Features
The 20,000-square-foot Visitor Center was conceived as a new threshold between the city and Brooklyn Botanic Garden that transitions from an architectural presence at the street to a structured landscape within the Garden. The Visitor Center invites visitors from Washington Avenue into the Garden via a curved glass trellis before opening into major garden precincts like the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden and Cherry Esplanade.
The primary entry from Washington Avenue is visible from the street; an additional entry from the elevated Overlook and Ginkgo Allée at the top of the berm bisects the Visitor Center, revealing framed views of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, and descends through a stepped ramp to the main level of the Garden.
The curved glass walls of the Visitor Center offer veiled views into the Garden, their fritted glass filtering light and deterring bird strikes. In contrast to the southern face of the building, the north side is built into a preexisting berm, which increases thermal efficiency. Its clerestory glazing—along with the fritted glass on the south walls—minimizes heat gain and maximizes natural illumination. A geoexchange system heats and cools the interior spaces, and a series of rain gardens collect and filter runoff to improve storm-water management.
The leaf-shaped living roof hosts over 40,000 plants—grasses, spring bulbs, and perennial wildflowers—adding a new experimental landscape to the Garden’s collection. The green roof will change throughout the year, literally transforming the nature of the architecture each season. A short time-lapse video, available on BBG’s website, shows the creation and transformation of the living roof through various weather elements (http://nextcentury.bbg.org/news). The Washington Avenue side of the building features a pleated copper roof that echoes the Garden’s landmarked 1917 McKim, Mead & White Administration Building and will ultimately weather to green.
By the time the Visitor Center opens, nearly 60,000 plants will have been installed around the building, including cherry, magnolia, and tupelo trees; viburnums; native roses; and three rain gardens full of water-loving plants. In combination with the green roof, this ambitious installation will seamlessly weave the Visitor Center into the green tapestry of the Garden.
“Brooklyn Botanic Garden is an extraordinary oasis in the city and a living museum with a collection in constant flux,” stated Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, principals at Weiss/Manfredi. “We envisioned the Visitor Center as a living interface that creates an invitation from the city into the Garden—a demonstration of the compelling reciprocity between architecture and landscape. Just as the Garden inspires wandering, we designed the center so that it is never seen in its entirety but is experienced cinematically as an unfolding place of discovery.”
Project Support
Lead funding for the new Visitor Center has been provided by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City of New York through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Speaker Christine C. Quinn and the New York City Council, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, and The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and The Amy P. Goldman Foundation.
In recognition of leadership support from The Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust and The Amy P. Goldman Foundation, the new event space in the Visitor Center has been named the Lillian and Amy Goldman Atrium.
Additional support was provided by United States Representative Yvette D. Clarke and the United States Department of Energy, New York State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York Economic Development Assistance Program, The Achelis and Bodman Foundations, Booth Ferris Foundation, Con Edison, Helen V. Froehlich Foundation, Brooklyn Community Foundation, Kresge Foundation Green Building Initiative, National Grid, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is also grateful for support from the Garden’s Board of Trustees and the foundations, corporations, individuals, and government agencies that have been early supporters of the Campaign for the Next Century. To date, the campaign has raised nearly $80 million.
Primary Project Partners
In addition to Weiss/Manfredi, the Visitor Center has involved an inspiring group of talented design, engineering, and construction partners, including HM White Site Architects (landscape architects); Thinc Design (exhibition designers); the LiRo Group (construction management); E.W. Howell (general contractor); Weidlinger Associates (structural and civil engineers); Langan (geothermal, geotechnical, and environmental consultants); Viridian Energy & Environment (sustainability consultants); Jaros, Baum & Bolles Consulting Engineers (M/E/P/FP and IT engineers)—and Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s own staff.
About Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Founded in 1910, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is an independent nonprofit institution committed to education, science, and horticultural display. The Garden is located on property owned by the City of New York, and its operation is made possible in part by public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. For more than a century, BBG has served communities in New York City and internationally through its extraordinary gardens, extensive living collections, and pioneering educational and community programs. The Garden continues today its legacy of educating new generations of environmental stewards. Situated on 52 acres in the heart of Brooklyn and originally laid out by the Olmsted Brothers landscape design firm, BBG is home to more than 12,000 types of plants and hosts more than 725,000 visitors annually. Brooklyn Botanic Garden was rated Brooklyn’s number one tourist attraction in Zagat’s 2008 Best of Brooklyn. For more information, visit bbg.org.
About Weiss/Manfredi
WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is a multidisciplinary design practice based in New York City. Founded by Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, the firm is known for the dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design. The firm’s projects, including the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, the Barnard College Diana Center, and the Women’s Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, exemplify the potential of architecture to transform public space. The firm has won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the international VR Green Prize for Urban Design. They have also been named one of North America’s “Emerging Voices” by the Architectural League of New York, and received the New York City AIA Gold Medal of Honor. Michael Manfredi has been the Gensler Visiting Professor at Cornell University and Marion Weiss is the Graham Chair Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
Press Contacts:
Kate Blumm, Brooklyn Botanic Garden
718-623-7241 / kblumm@bbg.org
Sarah Buffum, Ruder Finn Arts & Communications Counselors
212-715-1594 / buffums@ruderfinn.com
