Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Botanical garden in New York City / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) is a botanical garden in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. The botanical garden occupies 52 acres (21 ha) in central Brooklyn, close to Mount Prospect Park, Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Museum. Designed by the Olmsted Brothers, BBG holds over 14,000 taxa of plants and has over 800,000 visitors each year. It includes a number of specialty gardens, plant collections, and structures. BBG hosts numerous educational programs, plant-science and conservation, and community horticulture initiatives, in addition to a herbarium collection.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden | |
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40°40′12″N 73°57′45″W | |
Date opened | May 13, 1911 |
Location | 990 Washington Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York 11225 United States |
Land area | 52 acres (21 ha) |
No. of species | 14,000[1] |
Annual visitors | 800,000 (2015)[1] |
Public transit access | New York City Subway:
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Website | www |
The site of Brooklyn Botanic Garden was first designated in 1897, following three proposals for botanic gardens in Brooklyn in the 19th century. BBG opened in May 1911, on the site of an ash dump, and was initially operated by the Brooklyn Institute. Most of BBG's expansions were carried out over the next three decades under the tenure of its first director, C. Stuart Gager. BBG began operating three additional sites in the New York metropolitan area in the 1950s and 1960s, while its main garden in Brooklyn fell into decline. The original Brooklyn Botanic Garden was expanded and restored substantially starting in the 1980s, and additional structures were built through the 2010s.
BBG's landscape includes many specialty gardens and a group of buildings on its eastern boundary, accessed from three entrances. A brook flows from the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden in the north to the Water Garden in the south. BBG's other specialty gardens include rose, native flora, Shakespeare, fragrance, and children's gardens. There are also more formal landscape features such as an overlook, a celebrity path, the Osborne Garden, and a cherry esplanade. The structures include the 1980s-era Steinhardt Conservatory, the Laboratory Administration Building (which contains a library), and a palm house dating from the 1910s.
Early proposals
Prior to the construction of the present Brooklyn Botanic Garden, there had been three proposals for botanic gardens in the then-independent city of Brooklyn in the 19th century,[2] though only one of these botanic gardens was ever built.[3] André Parmentier had created the Horticultural and Botanic Garden of Brooklyn in October 1825 within Prospect Heights, on a plot bounded by Sixth, Atlantic, and Carleton Avenues and Bergen Street;[4] this garden only lasted until about 1830.[5] Brooklyn resident Thomas Hunt granted $50,000 in 1855 for the establishment of a botanic garden in Sunset Park (between Fifth Avenue, 57th Street, Sixth Avenue, and 60th Street).[6][7] The Hunt Horticultural and Botanical Garden sought to raise $150,000,[7][8] but the garden was never built at that location.[3][9]
The third plan for a botanical garden in Brooklyn was included in the plans for Prospect Park,[10] which was approved in 1859.[11] In February 1860, a group of fifteen commissioners submitted suggestions for park locations in Brooklyn, including a 320-acre (130 ha) plot centered on present-day Mount Prospect Park and bounded by Warren Street to the north; Vanderbilt, Ninth, and Tenth Avenues to the west; Third and Ninth Streets to the south; and Washington Avenue to the east.[12] Egbert Viele began drawing plans for the park, which was to straddle Flatbush Avenue and include Prospect Hill and the land now occupied by the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Brooklyn Museum.[12][13] The botanical garden was initially planned to be located along the shores of the park's lake.[10] The onset of the Civil War stopped further activity;[13] following the war, the triangle of land to the east of Flatbush Avenue was excluded from the park.[12][14] The botanical garden within Prospect Park was not built.[3] The northeast portion of the triangle served as an ash dump[2][15] until just before Brooklyn Botanic Garden was established.[16]
Creation
Legislation and funding
On May 18, 1897, as the city moved toward consolidation, the New York State Legislature reserved 39 acres (16 ha) for a botanic garden.[17][18] The site became part of Institute Park in 1902.[2] The garden was to be run under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, which until the 1970s included Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Children's Museum, and Brooklyn Academy of Music.[19] By 1901, the institute sought to acquire a site on the eastern side of Flatbush Avenue for the botanical garden.[20] This site had also been proposed as the location of a proposed Brooklyn university, but the institute wanted to establish a botanical garden on the site.[21] Several of the institute's donors proposed in 1905 to give $25,000 for the upkeep of a "scientific botanic garden" next to the Brooklyn Museum.[22] The next year, the donors doubled this award to $50,000.[17] City officials endorsed the creation of the botanical garden in 1907,[23] and supporters of the institute donated thousands of dollars toward the botanical garden.[24] Alfred Tredway White, a trustee of the Brooklyn Institute, leased a 40-acre (16 ha) site behind the Brooklyn Museum from the city.[25]
Although the New York City Board of Estimate approved Brooklyn Botanic Garden's creation in June 1909, it did not approve another agreement that would allow the Brooklyn Institute to maintain the botanical garden.[26][27] By the end of that year, the Olmsted Brothers had been hired as landscape designers, while McKim, Mead & White had been hired as architects for the botanical garden's buildings.[28] The Board of Estimate voted on December 10, 1909, to allow the city and the Brooklyn Institute to sign a maintenance agreement for the botanical garden.[26][27] New York City government and the Brooklyn Institute signed the maintenance agreement on December 28,[29][30] and an endowment fund for BBG was created three days later.[30] C. Stuart Gager was hired as BBG's first director in March 1910.[31] At this point, BBG was authorized to spend between $2,000 and $2,500 annually on plantings.[32] That June, the city government appropriated $25,000 for Brooklyn Botanic Garden's plant houses.[33]
Construction and opening
Gager wanted to create "an animated textbook in botany", with a Palm House and laboratories facing Washington Avenue, as well as a landscape with valleys, hills, a pond, and rocks.[34] In contrast to older botanical gardens, Brooklyn Botanic Garden was not arranged based solely on taxonomic classifications; the Olmsted Brothers sought to make the garden aesthetically pleasing as well.[35] McKim, Mead & White began drawing up plans in late 1910 for a laboratory and administration building with a 480-seat lecture hall, laboratories, and classrooms.[36] The New York City government turned over 43 acres (17 ha) to the Brooklyn Institute in February 1911,[17] and the institute's director Franklin W. Hooper requested the same month that more land be allocated to BBG.[37] McKim, Mead & White had completed plans for two wings of the Palm House and the first part of the Laboratory Administration Building that March.[38] The next month, the institute decided to build only one part of the Palm House, as the botanical garden only had a $50,000 budget.[39][lower-alpha 1]
The first section of BBG, the Native Flora Garden, opened on May 13, 1911;[41] the date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of the naturalist Carl Linnaeus.[42][43][lower-alpha 2] At the time, the plants had temporary labels, and work on the Palm House and laboratory had not started.[43] By late 1911, the Brooklyn Institute was planting shrubs and trees and were curating BBG's lawn.[44] The plantings included between 150 and 200 species of shrubs that grew within 100 miles (160 km) of Brooklyn.[45] BBG staff used a temporary headquarters in the Brooklyn Museum while BBG was being completed.[46] Harold Caparn was appointed as the landscape architect in 1912, serving in that position until 1945.[2][35] BBG hired Cockerill & Little Co. to build the Laboratory Administration Building in January 1912 and began constructing the structure three months later.[47][48] That September, the city government gave BBG an additional 3 acres (1.2 ha) of land, abutting the museum and reservoir.[49]
Workers began constructing the second section of the Palm House and landscaping the northern section of the botanical garden in early 1913.[50] The completion of the Laboratory Administration Building was postponed because of difficulties in obtaining roof tiles and structural steel.[47][48] The first portions of the Laboratory Administration Building and the Palm House were being completed by mid-1913,[51] and these structures opened in December 1913.[52] At the time, the Palm House had about 250 specimens from 140 species.[53] Dirt from the Brooklyn Botanical Garden was used to flatten land in Prospect Park,[54][55] and workers also landscaped BBG's watercourses and laid out paths.[56] The ongoing work forced officials to close off about two-thirds of the botanical garden's area to the public.[55] BBG launched a children's garden in 1914,[57] which was one of the first of its kind in the world.[58] By the end of that year, workers were constructing a Japanese garden and a rock garden.[59]
BBG's Japanese garden opened on the northeastern corner of the grounds in June 1915, next to the lake.[60][61] At that time, BBG started admitting visitors every day of the week; the grounds had been closed during the previous year because workers were regrading the paths.[61] McKim, Mead & White filed plans for expansions of the Palm House and the Laboratory Administration Building in August 1915 at a projected cost of $150,000.[62] The Board of Estimate approved the rock garden in March 1916,[63][64] and the Laboratory Administration Building's cornerstone was laid at a groundbreaking ceremony that April.[65][66] The rock garden was completed in May 1916.[64] The same year, the third section of the Palm House was built,[67] and contracts for the Palm House's fourth section were awarded.[68] The Laboratory Administration Building and Palm House were nearly complete in early 1917[69][70] and were dedicated on April 19–21, 1917.[71] The children's building was finished the same year.[70][72]
Operation
Caparn designed most of BBG's grounds in the botanical garden's first three decades of operation, including the Osborne Garden, Cranford Rose Garden, Magnolia Plaza, and Plant Collection.[73] For most of the 20th century, BBG could not expand beyond 52 acres (21 ha) because of space constraints. BBG initially did not charge admission.[74]
1920s and 1930s
By the early 1920s, BBG had 330,000 visitors a year,[15] including over 15,000 students from across Brooklyn.[75] During 1921, BBG staff planted 2,000 lily bulbs within its Lily Pool Terrace,[76][77] as well as thousands of daffodils and crocus bulbs.[78] BBG also planted thousands of asters east of the Laboratory Administration Building.[77][79] Daniel Chester French designed the Alfred Tredway White Memorial for the botanical garden in 1922 following White's death.[80] John D. Rockefeller Jr. offered to donate $250,000 to BBG in 1925 on the condition that the botanical garden raise matching funds.[81] By then, 500,000 people (including 50,000 students) visited BBG annually, and BBG gave lectures and classes to another 25,000 people per year.[82] The same year, Ernest F. Coe donated 32 bonsai to allow BBG to establish its Bonsai Collection,[83] and Henry C. Folger gave BBG $500 to establish a Shakespeare garden,[84] which opened in May 1925.[85] Gager announced in 1927 that BBG would create a rose garden,[86] following a $10,000 donation from Walter V. Cranford[87] (later increased to $15,000).[88] The rose garden opened on May 8, 1928,[89] and was finished that June.[90][91] An anonymous donor contributed funds for a stone bridge at BBG in December 1928, replacing a wooden bridge across the botanical garden's lake.[92]
Gager announced in June 1929 that an ornamental gate designed by McKim, Mead & White would be installed at BBG's Flatbush Avenue entrance, following a donation from Richard Young.[93][94] The next month, BBG trustee Alfred W. Jenkins donated funds for two additional stone "rustic bridges".[95] By that October, the gate and several new bridges within BBG were nearly finished;[96] the gate was dedicated in May 1930.[97] During the same time, ten garden seats and eight drinking fountains were donated to BBG,[98] and Jenkins agreed to donate a fountain and another rustic bridge in 1930,[99][100] BBG awarded contracts for the construction of a 500-by-90-foot (152 by 27 m) plaza in front of the Laboratory Administration Building in April 1930, more than a decade after plans for the plaza had been drawn up.[101] Gager also planned to build three other gates, an overlook, a north addition next to the Brooklyn Museum, garden seats, and plantings within the Native Flora Garden.[102] The Japanese garden was expanded as well, reopening in 1931.[103]
In 1933, a redesigned native wildflower garden, the Laboratory Administration Building plaza, and the overlook were completed,[104] and the BBG Women's Auxiliary donated magnolias to the garden's Magnolia Plaza.[83] Civil Works Administration (CWA) workers began landscaping the 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) north addition next to the Brooklyn Museum the same year.[104][105] The CWA crew also constructed a new entrance to BBG from Eastern Parkway.[105] Most of the north addition was completed in 1935, when BBG had 1.35 million annual visitors.[106] Afterward, BBG staff planted a formal garden along the north addition; a "wall garden" next to Mount Prospect Park;[107] and an herb garden.[108] Mrs. Walter V. Cranford donated a Rose Arc Pool to BBG in 1936.[109] BBG's Japanese shrine burned down in January 1938;[110] the herb garden at the northeast corner of BBG, planted by the Women's Auxiliary, was dedicated that September.[111] Sade Elisabeth Osborne dedicated the Dean Clay Osborne memorial at BBG in April 1939.[112]
1940s and 1950s
BBG attracted about 1.8 million annual visitors at the beginning of the 1940s with an endowment fund of nearly $1.4 million.[3] The Cherry Esplanade was created in 1941 after the Women's Auxiliary donated[83] four rows of cherry trees.[113][114] An ivy garden was also dedicated the same year.[113][115] The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was closed from 1941 to 1947 because of anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II.[114] BBG rehired McKim, Mead & White in 1942 to design a $200,000 annex to the Laboratory Administration Building, but the annex was not completed because of financial shortfalls.[47] Gager, BBG's first director, died in 1943[116] and was succeeded by George S. Avery Jr. the following year.[117] Michael Tuch and his wife donated a wrought iron gate for BBG's Eastern Parkway entrance in 1945,[118] and the gate was dedicated in March 1946.[119]
By the early 1950s, Avery planned to expand BBG's children's garden by 1 acre (0.40 ha) by covering the open-cut Franklin Avenue subway line.[120][121] At the time, the children's garden only had space for 250 plots, but a thousand children wanted to use the children's garden each year.[120] BBG accommodated 1.35 million visitors annually, more than the larger New York Botanical Garden did, but received less funding from the city.[122] The Women's Auxiliary proposed creating a "garden of fragrance" at BBG in May 1954;[123][124] the project was inspired by a British garden for the blind.[124] Construction of the 1.5-acre (6,100 m2) garden, located just north of the Laboratory Administration Building, began in October 1954.[125] The fragrance garden was dedicated in June 1955.[126]
Elizabeth Van Brunt sold 223 acres (90 ha) of forest at Kitchawan in Westchester County, New York, to BBG in 1956 for use as a research center.[127][128] BBG planned to move its nursery to Westchester to make way for a 1-acre (0.40 ha) expansion of the children's garden.[128] Workers restored BBG's paths, and added new trees and benches, in 1958 as part of a project designed by Clarence C. Combs.[129] Local women also volunteered to cultivate the garden after BBG staff went on strike for several months in 1959.[130]
1960s and 1970s
A Shinto shrine was dedicated at BBG's Japanese Garden in May 1960,[131] replacing a shrine that vandals had burned down.[132] The research center in Westchester was dedicated the same month.[133] By that October, BBG had recorded 50 million all-time visitors.[134] Takuma Paul Tono designed a replica of a stone garden at Ryōan-ji after BBG received a private donation in 1961.[135] The stone garden, dedicated in May 1963,[136] contained 15 granite stones of varying colors and sizes.[136][137] The Native Flora Garden was closed in 1963 due to a lack of funding; it did not reopen for two decades.[138] By the mid-1960s, Avery said BBG's finances were in decline, as most of the garden's funding came from wealthy benefactors who were moving away from Brooklyn.[139] Furthermore, an increase in crime had caused BBG officials to close off most of the botanical garden's exits by the end of the decade,[140] and litter was beginning to accumulate in the surrounding area.[141] BBG had an average of 5,000 daily visitors by the late 1960s.[142]
Avery served as BBG's director until 1969,[143] and Louis B. Martin briefly served as BBG's third director for the next two years, until the beginning of 1972.[144] As early as 1971, the city considered allowing the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to charge admission.[145] Elizabeth Scholtz, BBG's assistant curator of instruction, was appointed as the garden's acting director in 1972[146] and officially became the garden's fourth director the next year, making her the first woman to lead a large U.S. botanical garden.[147] Under Scholtz's leadership, BBG shifted its focus to its three "outreach stations" in Westchester County and on Long Island, as there was very little space to expand the original garden in Brooklyn. Although public interest in BBG had grown, the original garden in Brooklyn only employed seven full-time instructors and some part-time instructors.[148] The Ryōan-ji stone garden, which had been closed for several years because of a lack of funds, reopened in 1973.[149]
BBG split from the Brooklyn Institute during the 1970s.[150] The Women's Auxiliary of BBG launched a docent program, Volunteer Garden Guide, in 1974.[83] Continuing financial problems forced BBG to close on Mondays starting in 1975 for the first time in its history.[151] The change was attributed to the fact that BBG's annual operating budget had come to exceed $2 million, a two-thirds increase from the $1.2 million budget in 1970, but the city had committed to funding a smaller portion of BBG's expenses.[152] BBG had 800,000 annual visitors by the late 1970s; although this was half the number of visitors that the garden had recorded in the mid-20th century, BBG was still more popular than comparable botanical gardens.[153] The Shakespeare Garden reopened in June 1979[154] after being relocated from its original location near the Children's Garden.[155]
1980s and 1990s
Donald E. Moore became BBG's fifth leader in 1980.[156] Under his tenure, BBG was expanded, and its membership grew threefold to 25,000.[157] BBG began allowing events, such as parties and weddings, on its grounds in 1982;[158] it also started hosting an annual cherry blossom festival that year.[159][160] In 1983, BBG reopened its native flora garden, which had been closed for twenty years, after hiring a gardener and two assistants.[138] By the mid-1980s, the botanical garden had over 600,000 annual visitors, as well as 11,000 members from around the world.[161][162] BBG also had 15,000 specimens representing 2,000 species.[163] At that time, BBG's Palm House and the adjacent wooden greenhouses had become severely deteriorated.[164][165] The Celebrity Path was created in 1985 following a donation from the Brooklyn Union Gas Company.[166][167]
BBG announced in 1984 that it would construct a new conservatory and restore the Palm House for $16 million. The city and BBG would each pay for half of the renovation.[164][168] The conservatory was to be designed by Davis, Brody & Associates,[169] who were also responsible for renovating the Palm House and Administration Building.[170] Work on the new conservatory commenced in May 1984;[161] it was the first major building erected in BBG since the 1910s.[169] The conservatory replaced three smaller gardens, including the Ryōan-ji stone garden.[171] The conservatory's $25 million cost included $3 million from Michael and Judith Steinhardt and $11.65 million from the city government.[169][172] The Steinhardt Conservatory was named for the couple in March 1988[172] and opened on May 19, 1988.[171][173] BBG also renovated the Palm House into an education center and event space,[170][174] and it erected an education building with greenhouses, displays, and classrooms.[175] The renovation added 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2), more than doubling the amount of space dedicated to displaying plants and exhibits.[174] A gift shop opened next to the Steinhardt Conservatory in June 1989,[176] and a discovery center sponsored by Chase Manhattan Bank opened in September 1989.[177]
Judith Zuk was named as BBG's president in 1990 after Moore resigned.[178] Several of BBG's gardens were renovated under Zuk's tenure.[179] The Discovery Garden opened next to the Discovery Center in September 1992,[180] and the viewing pavilion in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was renovated in 1993 as part of a larger $1.5 million rehabilitation of the Japanese garden.[181] In 1996, the garden began charging admission of $3 per adult after cuts in public and private funding and increases in operating costs.[182][183] Community groups objected that the admission fee would negatively impact local residents,[184] but Zuk said the fee would raise at least half a million dollars per year.[182] To attract visitors during the winter, BBG began hosting model train displays in late 1998.[185] The Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was renovated starting in 1999; the project was supposed to cost $3 million and was funded mostly by the New York City Council.[186] The project included repainting the torii, restoring the viewing pavilion and Turtle Island, making the lower level accessible, and planting extra trees.[187] The Japanese garden reopened in May 2000.[187][188]
2000s to present
When the entrance to the Brooklyn Museum was rebuilt in 2002, some of BBG's cherry trees had to be cut down.[189] The entrance on Eastern Parkway was rebuilt in 2003 at a cost of $2.5 million. The previous entrance had been too narrow and was set back from the street, making it difficult for visitors to see the entrance.[190] The new entrance opened in 2005.[191] After Zuk retired in 2005,[179] the Magnolia Plaza was named in her honor,[192][193] and Scot Medbury was selected as president the same year.[194] Medbury planned to build a party room, restaurant, and visitor center; by then, BBG had 700,000 annual visitors and an operating budget of nearly $15 million.[191] The Cranford Rose Garden was restored in 2006, followed by the C.V. Starr Bonsai Museum the next year.[83]
BBG's Laboratory Building was designated as a city landmark in 2007.[195] The same year, as part of the Campaign for the Next Century,[196] BBG started to raise money for new gardens, entrances, and a visitor center.[197] Major donors to the campaign included Charlie and Irene Hamm,[197] the Leon Levy Foundation, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, and the Robert Wilson Charitable Trust.[198] BBG announced in 2009 that it would build a new entrance and visitor center on its northeastern corner, at the intersection of President Street and Washington Avenue. The botanical garden also planned to construct herb, woodland, and water gardens for its centennial.[199] The visitor center was originally supposed to be located near the Cherry Walk but was moved to provide a better connection with the surrounding area.[200] BBG relocated its herb garden in 2010,[201] and the visitor center opened in May 2012.[202] In June 2013, BBG opened an expansion of its Native Flora Garden.[203][204] BBG suspended its science program that year because of budget cuts and the severe deterioration of BBG's science center in Crown Heights.[205]
Brooklyn Botanic Garden was one of ten institutions that received the National Medal for Museum and Library Service in 2014, the centennial of its children's garden.[206][207] BBG's Discovery Garden reopened in June 2015 after a renovation designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh.[208][209] The Water Garden, which was named for Shelby White and Leon Levy after they donated $7.5 million to BBG,[210] reopened in September 2016 following a restoration.[211] The Yellow Magnolia Café opened within the Palm House in 2017.[212][213] In 2018, BBG announced that it would re-landscape a hill leading to the Robert W. Wilson Overlook,[214] which was rededicated in November 2019.[215][216] The Elizabeth Scholtz Woodland Garden, named in honor of BBG's former director, also opened the same year.[215][217] After a high-rise tower development was announced next to BBG at 960 Franklin Avenue, BBG protested the project in 2019;[218] the towers were canceled after city officials rejected the project.[219]
BBG was closed temporarily from March to August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City.[220] Former city parks commissioner Adrian Benepe was selected as BBG's eighth president in late 2020, after Medbury resigned.[221]
Brooklyn Botanic Garden is in the central part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, on the border of the Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Crown Heights neighborhoods. It occupies much of the city block bounded by Eastern Parkway to the north, Washington Avenue to the east, Empire Boulevard to the south, and Flatbush Avenue to the southwest.[222] BBG shares a large city block with Brooklyn's Central Library, Mount Prospect Park, and the Brooklyn Museum to the west and north.[223] The far southeastern corner of the block contains the Brooklyn Central Office, Bureau of Fire Communications, at 35 Empire Boulevard.[224] BBG covers 52 acres (21 ha),[83][225][lower-alpha 3] making it much smaller than the New York Botanical Garden, which covers 250 acres (100 ha).[153] As of 2015[update], BBG has over 14,000 plant species.[1]
Approximately 17,000 years ago the terminal moraine of the receding Wisconsin Glacier that formed Long Island, known as the Harbor Hill Moraine, established a string of hills and kettles as well as a lower lying outwash plain.[226] Mount Prospect (or Prospect Hill), near the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Eastern Parkway, is one of the tallest hills in Brooklyn, rising 200 feet (61 m) above sea level.[227] As a result of the Wisconsin glaciation, there were a large number of rock outcroppings on the site prior to BBG's development.[228][229] The northwestern and eastern edges of the site contained outcroppings, while the rest of the site was in an overwash plain.[229] Boulders from the site were used in the rock garden, the native flora garden, bridges and dams across the artificial brook, and pedestals for various memorial tablets.[228] In addition to 18 boulders in the rock garden, there are six outcroppings in other parts of BBG.[230]
A brook runs across the garden from the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden in the north to the Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden in the south. Water from the Water Garden flowed into a storm drain prior to 2019, when the Water Conservation Project was completed. As a result of the project, water from the Water Garden is recirculated to the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.[231] This project was intended to save over 21 million U.S. gallons (79,000,000 L) of water per year,[211][210] reducing by 95 percent the amount of water that the brook drew from the New York City water supply system.[210]
Entrances
Brooklyn Botanic Garden contains three entrances.[232] The southwest entrance, at Flatbush Avenue near Empire Boulevard, is near the New York City Subway's Prospect Park station.[150] McKim, Mead & White designed an Italian Renaissance Revival-style gate at Flatbush Avenue. The gate measures 20 feet (6.1 m) tall by 23 feet (7.0 m) wide and is made of brick and limestone. It contains three arches measuring 6.75 feet (2.06 m) deep, with a large central arch flanked by smaller entry and exit arches.[93][94] Three similar arches were proposed, one on Eastern Parkway and two on Washington Avenue, but were not built.[93][94] In the early 21st century, a visitor center was added next to the Flatbush Avenue entrance.[233]
The northern entrance on Eastern Parkway is adjacent to an entrance to the New York City Subway's Eastern Parkway–Brooklyn Museum station.[150] Prior to 2003,[190] it contained a decorative metal gate dating from 1946.[119][150] The gate contained plaques symbolizing three major crops, namely rice, maize, and wheat. In addition, there were vertical reliefs that symbolize plant evolution.[150] The entrance was rebuilt in 2003 with a 16-foot-wide (4.9 m) stainless-steel gate flanked by 12-foot-high (3.7 m) curved steel walls. The new entrance, designed by James Polshek, also contains a 50-foot-high (15 m) cast-glass cone, as well as an embankment with information and ticket kiosks.[190] Just within the entrance, there are boulders from New Jersey on either side of the path, as well as an overhanging birch branch.[150]
The eastern entrance on Washington Avenue abuts the Brooklyn Museum's parking lot.[150] This entrance contains the Diane H. and Joseph S. Steinberg Visitor Center, designed by Weiss/Manfredi,[234][235] and faces the botanical garden's northeastern corner.[232] The structure is accessed by a set of stairs, which lead to a concrete plaza with a rock garden on its northern border (abutting the Brooklyn Museum's parking lot).[232] The visitor center's Washington Avenue facade is made of concrete and glass, with a gabled copper roof, while the northern and southern facades of the visitor center are curved.[234][232] The interior consists of a rectangular pavilion to the east, which houses the gift shop, and a 480-foot-long (150 m) curving pavilion to the west, with kitchens, event spaces, offices, and exhibits.[234] The visitor center has a sloped green roof,[235] covering 10,000 square feet (930 m2).[200][232] The structure is heated by a ground source heat pump system.[200]