Missouri Botanical Garden Jack C. Taylor Center
The Missouri Botanical Garden is a global leader in plant science research and the nation’s oldest botanical garden in continuous operation. Entering a new era, the Garden commissioned the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center as the primary gateway for more than one million annual visitors.
Agency
Ayers Saint Gross
Practice Area
Client
Missouri Botanical Garden
Industry
The Challenge
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is a place of passage, but also a place of pause and reflection; a place to prepare visitors for the garden beyond. The moments of surprise and discovery found within are integral to a rich garden experience, and equips visitors for their journey ahead. Inspired by the history of the Garden and its extensive plant collection, the Visitor Center blurs boundaries between indoors and outdoors, creating an immersive experience by incorporating elements of the natural world.
Project Vision
The Visitor Center integrates seamlessly into the Garden’s arrival sequence, serving as part of a series of thresholds through which the Garden reveals itself. The interpretive, educational, and wayfinding features of the building play a fundamental role in enhancing the visitor experience throughout the journey into the garden.
Designed for accessibility, the new north garden entry includes gently sloping paths and generous terraces where visitors can linger. Durable materials including granite, brass, and Missouri-native limestone convey the longevity and significance of the institution and strengthen the relationship between the new gardens and their historic counterparts. The institutional identity is etched into the limestone fountain that greets visitors at the base and reflected again on the façade in metal lettering along with the building name.
Upon arrival at the Garden, visitors are greeted by the glow of the main lantern, gently sloping paths, and the reassurance of the name etched into the limestone fountain.
Casey Dunn
A custom-designed scrim, perforated in a pattern inspired by the Gingko tree canopy, sheds dappled light into the lobby, and evokes the feeling of entering a clearing in the woods.
Casey Dunn
Design + Execution
Once inside, visitors are immersed in natural light as they take in views of the extensive gardens beyond. The Visitor Center’s main lantern feature is suspended from the ceiling and includes a custom-designed scrim perforated in a pattern inspired by the canopy of the Garden’s historic Gingko tree. By filtering dappled light into the lobby, the lantern evokes the feeling of entering a clearing in the woods. At night, the glow of the lantern acts as a beacon for visitors and the community.
Biophilic design elements are woven throughout the visitor center, including custom terrazzo flooring that reflects the local landscape. Inlays of river rock meander throughout the lobby and are accompanied by over 200 hand-laid brass leaves, as if they have fallen from the canopy above. The leaves include twelve native species which were selected by the Garden’s horticulture staff from their extensive library. Each leaf was anatomically illustrated and then translated into brass, going through several tests with the manufacturer for the desired weight and width, and placed individually in the flooring schematic alongside the cut river rock. Donor recognition for the main lobby is integrated into the flooring as brass letters, with the donor hand selecting a favorite tree specimen to be placed nearby.
The inlaid flooring also serves as an educational element for the Garden’s younger visitors. A nearby wall showcases a life size representation of each specimen etched into the zinc panel and labeled with both common and scientific names. Located directly next to the visitor engagement desk, it then invites visitors to consult personally with Garden staff on what they might explore in the garden that day.
Specimens from twelve native woodland species were selected by the Garden’s horticultural staff, then anatomically illustrated before being translated into brass and hand placed alongside the rocks.
Casey Dunn
A nearby wall showcases a life size representation of each specimen etched into the zinc panel and labeled with both common and scientific names.
Casey Dunn
Wayfinding throughout the Visitor Center relates directly to the architecture, taking its cues from both materials and form. Key destinations are identified with warm brass lettering perched atop carved portals.
Casey Dunn
Wayfinding throughout the Visitor Center relates directly to the architecture, taking its cues from both materials and form. The selected wayfinding typeface of Questa Sans responds to the verticality of the building’s main lantern feature with the dual purpose of being both legible and friendly. Conceived as volumetric forms, interior and exterior walls are clad in zinc and carved to accommodate key destinations. Each volume opening is framed with blackened aluminum plate with brass lettering identifying the destinations for visitors – visitor services, café, and gift shop. The curvilinear visitor engagement desk is identified using inlaid brass letters, creating material continuity between elements.
To commemorate the bold community effort that made the Visitor Center possible, donor names were etched directly into the zinc wall panels, with the intent of maintaining the continuity of the interior materials and providing a quality of permanence. Throughout the Visitor Center, individual donor naming opportunities are represented in brass in wall, floor, and paver applications that assimilate with their immediate surroundings.
The softly curved form of the visitor engagement desk allows the focus to slide past it to the garden beyond. Identification is rendered in inlaid brass for material continuity.
Casey Dunn
To commemorate the bold community effort that made the Visitor Center possible, donor names were etched directly into the zinc wall panels of the main lobby.
Casey Dunn
Project Details
Design Team
Ayers Saint Gross
Photo Credits
Casey Dunn
Open Date
September 1, 2022