Thursday, March 28, 2024

Missouri Botanical Garden opens new visitor center

The grand opening of the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 27, 2022 at the Missouri Botanical Garden.  

With the opening of the Taylor Visitor Center, the Garden ushers in a new era that will transform every visit and embody the Garden’s mission to create meaningful experiences that inspire a love of plants and a passion to protect them. The $100 million Gateway to the Garden campaign was funded entirely by private donations. 

To celebrate the grand opening, the Garden will offer free admission to all visitors on Saturday, August 27, and Sunday, August 28, 2022 sponsored by Pohlmann Legacy. The grand opening celebration will include live music, storytelling, and other special events.

Inside the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center, the William T. Kemper Lobby comprises access to updated and expanded visitor amenities—ticketing, restrooms, dining, and gift shopping. The expanded Sassafras Restaurant and Café will offer two dining options and extensive outdoor seating. The spacious new Garden Gate Shop will feature an outdoor plant shop. All visitor services are accessible on the main floor—no steps or elevators required. 

Throughout the building, guests will enjoy views of Garden landscapes. Design elements, like terrazzo flooring with inlaid brass leaves and 10-foot glass panels showcasing plants from the Garden’s collection, bring elements of the outdoors inside.  

Next month, plants will be added to the Emerson Conservatory (pictured above). This new space will have a permanent display of Mediterranean plants and will provide a new home for the Garden’s floral shows, such as the popular annual Orchid Show. 

PGAV DESTINATIONS and MAD SYSTEMS – key external team members

From an earlier announcement by PGAV Destinations (June 2022):

PGAV Destinations is excited to create a new digital media experience for the Missouri Botanical Garden at their new Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center.

“The Missouri Botanical Garden has broken ground on the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center, a project that will transform visitors’ experience, sustain the Garden’s future, and contribute to a growing cultural renaissance in St. Louis. The $100 million project is the largest in the Garden’s history, and is being funded entirely from private donations.

“To complete their vision for the new lobby of the Visitor Center, the Garden has retained PGAV Destinations to creatively design and build a new immersive media experience that will provide visitors with a vibrant, memorable visual presentation of the Garden’s mission and global impact. The experience will provide a unique, immersive, and engaging presentation to help prepare visitors for the Garden visit and reinforce the Garden messaging upon departure.

“’The Missouri Botanical Garden has been a beloved client of PGAV’s for many years,” said Mike Konzen, PGAV CEO. “We are excited to collaborate with them to create an immersive entry experience into the new design.’” PGAV has been a proud supporter of the Chinese Lantern Festival and, most recently, Presenting Sponsor of Garden of Glass. “’It is always special to work in our hometown for a place that we consider our Garden.’”

“A world leader in research and innovation, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s mission is to

connect people with plants and showcase the natural world, and the new Jack C Taylor Visitor Center will be a symbol of that mission by providing an environment that fully embraces the concept of sustainability and powerfully transports guests into the oasis that is the Garden.

“PGAV will work collaboratively with the Garden to develop the media content as well as select the most appropriate hardware to meet the creative solution. PGAV has included Mad Systems on their team as an Audio / Visual technology partner to help implement the design.

“The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center and media experience will open in summer 2022.”

Video of in progress work from June 2022

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