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Missouri Botanical Garden to break ground on new $92M visitor center

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is expected to open in the summer of 2022
Credit: Missouri Botanical Garden
A new, $92 million entryway project is coming to the Missouri Botanical Garden. The privately-funded project is starting in January 2020, and should be done by spring of 2022.

ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Botanical Garden will host a groundbreaking on Thursday for a new $92 million project.

The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is expected to open in the summer of 2022 and will better accommodate the 1 million visitors that come to the Missouri Botanical Garden each year, according to a press release.

RELATED: Missouri Botanical Garden announces $92M Gateway to the Garden project

The current entryway and Ridgway Visitor Center, built in 1982, was designed to accommodate 250,000 visitors per year.

“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 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,” MoBot said in a press release.

The new event center portion of the visitor center will be built during phase one of the project, expected to be finished in October. During phase 2, the current visitor center will be torn down and the new center will be built in its place. Phase three will focus on finishing the interior.

St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page and other representatives are expected to attend the groundbreaking at 10 a.m. Thursday.

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