urbanSTL

^I swear to god there was an article in one of their periodic member magazines twenty years ago that said they wanted to get rid of the parking lot. Came shortly after they built the new research building across Vandeventer. They were going to have a remote lot and shuttle service. But the magazine is doubtless long gone after a half dozen moves. Even I throw things out . . . eventually. Sometimes.

Anyway, I basically agree that the building is fine. I'm just nostalgic about my 80s mall and its lovely bottleneck.

I was involved with a project at MOBOT about a decade ago - so take this dated information with a grain of salt - to do some pavement work on the parking lot. The part I worked on was part of a larger renovation of the parking lot that was intended to demonstrate best management practices for stormwater runoff. MOBOT built a rain garden, and a (I think) bioswale, and installed pervious concrete, and porous asphalt parking areas. They also left all of the older grasscrete pavers in place, which at the time at least, they really did not like. 

The idea was to use the lot as a proving ground to show that there are ways to handle stormwater besides just sending it out to a storm sewer, and also to provide a better environment for all of the mature trees around the parking lot. They were very particular about what kind of work, if any, could be done within the drip line of those trees. A lot may have changed in the last decade or so, but at the time they were not at all interested in harming, let alone removing any of the trees in and around the parking lot.

Let's not forget how in the past the Garden tried to expand all the way north to the highway but the community fought back and kept them from tearing down those houses. I believe it was after that when the started building along Shaw and Vandeventer.

Dang. That building is absolutely stunning. 

^It's replacement is hardly ho-hum.

$6M building permit issued

Did they ever say what they were going to do with the Chihuly?

2020STL wrote: ↑

Nov 16, 2020

Did they ever say what they were going to do with the Chihuly?

The article today says they're hanging it in the Climatron until a permanent home can be found.

man, really wish they incorporate it into the new building somehow, it's too beautiful of a piece to put in storage or sell

Well, Chihuly or one of his dozens of employees, anyway. That guy has turned his "fine art" into a mass-produced, industrialized process. I doubt if he even sees half of what they crank out.

$61.4M building permit issued.

Not related directly to the visitor center but ran with a Wabash post on another thread and pulled a recent article for a good news source

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/show/st ... -heres-how

^They do good work. Always happy to hear their progress in preserving biodiversity.

Visited MoBot yesterday (it's quite serene when it snows) and per an employee demolition on the old visitor's center begins today.

-RBB

Yesterday. I’m sure more is gone by now

I wish they would've preserved the entrance portion of that façade. While the new construction will be far superior in terms of usability and layout (minus the front stairway), it inherently lacks the character I associate with the Botanical Garden. I think the architect should've done a much better job tying the design into nature because it is the Botanical Center, after all. The current visitor center does a good with this as the mullions remind me of the veins of leaves. Just my thought.

I am going to reserve my judgement until the building has been finished. 

One of the goals of this project to bring the garden into the lot, according to the Garden itself. 

KansasCitian wrote: ↑

Jan 20, 2021

One of the goals of this project to bring the garden into the lot, according to the Garden itself. 

Which i hate. I love feel of going from urban to garden. The massive front steps and ramps feels like the entrance to a Missouri DNR state park visitors center to me. Not the entrance to a 160 year old Victorian garden in the middle of a city.

Well, it doesn't go urban to garden. It goes urban to parking lot to garden.

Heck, I'm old enough to remember when the entrance was on Tower Grove, in a direct line across the reflecting pools to the Climatron. Now THAT was an entrance!