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The New Botanical Center
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Welcome to a special page about the $4.3 million Botanical Center to be built in Springfield, Missouri's Nathanael Greene/Close Memorial Park. What this building will do for the already lively gardening world in the Ozarks is a marvelous story still unfolding, and we'll be keeping you posted here.
This is our own informal view of the Center, along with notes and quotes from others excited about the project.
Guess who's an especially important figure in the Botanical Center project. You. It's no joke. You can move the Center a big step forward to becoming a reality simply by telling people about it.
If you like, you can also contribute financially. Every penny will help, and the gift will benefit not only those of us who can enjoy and use the Center today, but all generations to come.
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Enlarge photo | | A $3 Million Vote of Confidence
Voters in 2006 approved a 1/4-cent sales tax to provide $3 million to build the Botanical Center in Springfield, Missouri. We're careful with public money in the Ozarks, but the vote wasn't that surprising--we're also one of America's liveliest gardening regions--Springfield ranks third in the nation in per capita spending on gardening.* Our region deserves a Botanical Center and if a public fund drive can can complete the financing, we'll have one.
*(Source: The 2005 Missouri University Extension Annual Report.)
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Enlarge photo | | How Much Money Is Needed?
Sales tax funds, grants from public agencies, and donations by private citizens have provided a total of $3,772,102, leaving $527,898 to be raised. Contributions are tax deductible and can be made through two organizations listed below or directly to the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the nonprofit agency that holds the funds.
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Enlarge photo | | Just What Is a Botanical Center, Anyway?
It's a good question. A botanical center, as we've come to understand it, is basically a place where people can learn about plant life. A botanical center can provide classes, workshops, and demonstrations in identifying, growing, and caring for plants of all kinds. It can include teaching gardens where people can see first-hand plants that grow well in their region, how they can be used to beautify one's surroundings, and how best to grow them. A botanical center, then, is foremost an educational resource. But there's more, as you'll see.
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Enlarge photo | | When Will It Happen?
Make no mistake, the Botanical Center isn't a pipedream. It's a reality. The plans are drawn and construction is scheduled to start in 2009. The timetable calls for the Center to open in 2010.
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Enlarge photo | | Where Will It Happen?
The setting for the Botanical Center is two beautiful adjoining parks, the 59-acre Nathanael Greene Park and the 55-acre Close Memorial Park, which share a common entrance at 2400 S. Scenic in Springfield, Missouri.Amazingly, many people aren't aware of these two parks, even though they're one of our greatest environmental assets. We'll tell you more about the parks below, but for now...
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Enlarge photo | | The Building
This artist's rendering shows a 125-foot glass facade that H Design Group, the Botanical Center's architects, say will let in maximum natural light and allow a sense of the interior and exterior environments flowing together. By using energy-efficient mechanical and lighting materials and systems, the Center will also be a "green building."
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Enlarge photo | | A Rooftop Plaza
Built against a hillside to blend into the landscape, the Center's rooftop plaza provides an open vista and space for a roof garden and outdoor events, meetings, and classes. Visitors will enter the main building through the structure at the right rear, where horizontal lines represent a screen to be planted with vines for a green entryway. A railing system of cable or glass will allow maximum visibility.
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Enlarge photo | | The Lobby
From the rooftop plaza, visitors will descend by stairs or an elevator into a large, open, airy lobby with a reception desk, exhibit space, and access to offices, meeting rooms and classrooms. The south-facing lobby will receive the maximum natural light.
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Enlarge photo | | What Will Be Inside the Building?
The Botanical Center will house offices for the Springfield- Greene County Parks Department, University of Missouri Greene County Extension and its Master Gardeners, 4-H, and other programs; and Friends of the Garden. It will also contain a giftshop/bookstore, a library, and classroom, meeting, and exhibit space that will make possible many programs, seminars, and demonstrations previously unrealized for lack of a location.
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Enlarge photo | | Who are the Friends of the Garden?
Friends of the Garden is a nonprofit organization of volunteers. It was formed in 1998 for the purposes of establishing and maintaining botanical gardens in Close Memorial Park and raising tax-deductible donations to help fund the Botanical Center construction. Its members represent many different backgrounds, professions, livelihoods, and life experiences, all united in the mission to build the Center.
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Enlarge photo | | Can I Join Friends of the Garden?
Sure. Joining Friends of the Garden is easy. A $25 donation will help build the Center and buy a Friends membership that includes a free season pass for two to the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, discounts on gardening seminars and workshops, and participation in a great gardening community. If you like, you can download a membership form here. Again, any donation to the Botanical Center project--in any amount--is tax-deductible.
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Enlarge photo | | More About Close Memorial Park
People are more and more discovering Close Memorial Park and its amenities. This bronze sculpture, for example, touches nearly everyone who encounters it. It's of a beloved civic leader, Anne Drummond, shown reading by the lake that came to bear her name. Other attractions include vast open spaces, scenic walkways, a playground, bronzes of children at play, 14 beautiful botanical gardens, an Arboretum containing most of Missouri's native trees, a section of the Ozark Greenways Trail, a concourse, picnic tables, and grills. It all forms a wonderful setting for the Botanical Center, which will emerge from a Close Park hillside and also overlook Lake Drummond.
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Enlarge photo | | More About Nathanael Greene Park
Named for American Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, said to be George Washington's most trusted officer, this park has some wonderful features: the 1850's-era Gray-Campbell Farmstead, where visitors can see how our first settlers actually lived; the Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden, a great teaching garden; the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden; a colorful cottage garden created by the Federated Garden Clubs of Southwest Missouri; a turf garden; the Lions Club History Walk; decorative statuary; scenic walkways; two rentable pavilions; picnic areas; and wide open spaces. It's a marvel on its own, and with Close Park is virtually a garden oasis.
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Enlarge photo | | THE GARDENS
For us, the most exciting aspect of the Botanical Center is the Botanical Gardens. The Center's 20-year master plan calls for it to be surrounded by 34 gardens. Sixteen of these gardens already exist and are attracting visitors. You can see many of them on this website through the Real Gardens page, or you can use these individual links: the Hosta Garden, the Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden, the Ornamental Grass Garden, the English Garden, the Butterfly Garden, the Rose Garden, the White Garden, the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden, and the new Daylily Garden.
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Enlarge photo | | The Essential Website
For up-to-date information on the Botanical Center project, beautiful photos of the botanical gardens, and important links, Friends of the Garden, the nonprofit organization raising public funds for the project, has a winner of a website here.
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Enlarge photo | | The Other Essential Website
University of Missouri Extension-Greene County is also raising funds for the Botanical Center and Civic Communications Specialist David Burton has created an excellent summary of the project, including up-to-date figures, key links, and other important info here.
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Enlarge photo | | 'A Great Shot in the Arm....'
The Botanical Center will be "a great shot in the arm to the Master Gardeners program," said Gaylord Moore, who recently retired as Missouri University Extension horticultural specialist. He adds that the Center will guarantee the program a location for classes and workshops and the gardens will serve to demonstrate soil conditioning, how to divide perennials, and "everything that has to do with plants, fruits, vegetables, trees, shrubs--you name it."
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Enlarge photo | | 'The Public Wants It. We Want It.'
We don't have near the space here to list Jodie Adams' achievements as the Springfield-Greene County Park Board's parks and recreation director. We can note her role in the city's in 2000 receiving the National Recreation and Park Association's Gold Medal for Excellence in Parks and Recreation Management. When it's built, the park board will own, operate, and maintain the Botanical Center. Jodie says, "The public wants it. We want it. This is a great thing for our community." For more about Jodie and her contributions to life in the Ozarks, click here.
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Enlarge photo | | 'We are all stewards of the earth....'
"We are all stewards of the earth, and our children can be led into this path through the Center's classes and programs." They're the most telling words yet on the Botanical Center project, and they come from Susan Boswell, a mother of four who obviously cares about the world today and the world to come. As Friends of the Garden development director, Susan works tirelessly in leading the public drive for funds.
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Enlarge photo | | 'It will be a place the city will be proud of'
So said Paul Redfearn, the outgoing Friends of the Garden president. Paul, a professor emeritus of botany at Missouri State University and a former mayor of Springfield, makes many contributions to the Botanical Center project, including providing beautiful pictures of the botanical gardens now present in Close Park. You can see many of them here.
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Enlarge photo | | 'A Great Opportunity...'
Bob Kipfer, the new Friends of the Garden president, is an avid conservationist. A retired M.D. and vice-president in the Missouri Master Naturalist program of the Department of Conservation and University of Missouri Extension, Bob believes that a botanical center is a "necessity in any major metropolitan center." He's especially committed to the center's Arboretum as "a great opportunity to have the most complete collection of Missouri's native trees."
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Enlarge photo | | 'An Excellent Source...'
As Friends of the Garden garden chairman, Bob Childress helps plan the botanical gardens, obtains plants, and does the physical work of helping plant and maintain them. Given all that, we take him seriously when he says that the Botanical Center will be "an excellent source of information for people who are looking for ideas for landscaping and gardening." One other note: Bob also serves as the group's secretary.
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Enlarge photo | | Getting the Word Out
Marketing veteran George Deatz, vice-president of Friends of the Garden, is also the group's publicity chairman. As such, he has an especially big task--getting the word out about the Botanical Center and all of the benefits it will provide our region. George says everyone should "visit the site of the new Botanical Center now and see the current botanical wonders these parks have to offer."
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Enlarge photo | | 'We Are Excited About This New Building'
David Burton is more than busy writing and disseminating important news as the University of Missouri-Greene County Extension civic communications specialist. For the Botanical Center, however, he's gone the extra mile beyond his regular duties, taking a key role in the extension drive for Center funds and many supporting tasks, even to the point of hand-delivering fundraising brochures throughout the region.
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Enlarge photo | | 'That tree? Well, that's a...well, er, uh....'
For those who would like once and for all to be able to identify Missouri's trees, the Center project has some major help. The Arboretum already contains most of the state's native trees, and more will be planted this year. Bob Kipfer and George Deatz have prepared a map of Close Park that shows the trees' exact locations, and it even includes GPS coordinates. The best news: The map will be made available to the public free of charge.
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Enlarge photo | | A Generous Gift to Close Memorial Park
Bravo to the Botany Shop Garden Center in Joplin, Missouri, for donating dozens of beautiful shrubs and trees to Close Memorial Park in Springfield--hydrangea varieties like 'Endless Summer,' 'Blue Moon' wisteria, 'Fantasy' crape myrtle, and more, and redbud, maple, holly, elm, and other trees. Owner Mike Shade grows thousands of trees and shrubs, we're told, specializing in red maples and selling all over the nation. The Shop's website has more info here.
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Enlarge photo | | A Gift in Memory
One good way to support the Botanical Center and at the same time honor loved ones or state one's support of the Center is to purchase memorial bricks in the Memorial Walk in the English White Garden in Close Memorial Park. The bricks may be purchased for a $50 donation mailed with the desired inscription to Major Close, 1425 S. Fairway Terrace, Springfield, Missouri 65804.
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