Atlanta Botanical Garden Abloom with Plans for Dazzling Future

If you appreciate the verdant beauty of the Atlanta Botanical Garden at ground level, wait until you experience it from the treetops. Georgia’s premier botanical garden is moving forward with a $35 million capital improvement plan which promises to make the garden “positively sing,” according to Executive Director Mary Pat Matheson.

With the question of the parking deck settled by an Atlanta City Council vote last November that gave approval to the project, the garden has announced a checklist of exciting green projects, including the Storza Woods Canopy Walk and Canopy Classroom; a new Visitors Center, offering views of the gardens and neighboring woodlands; and an Edible Garden to replace the existing parking lot.

The unveiling of the garden’s plans comes just weeks before the April 29 th opening of a sure-to-be blockbuster exhibit of outdoor sculpture by internationally-renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle (see accompanying story). “We expect this to be a huge year for the garden—another Chihuly year,” Matheson said, referring to the 2004 exhibit of glass artist Dale Chihuly’s works, which brought 425,000 visitors to the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

The garden already has raised more than $27 million in private donations toward its three-year improvement project and will roll out a public capital campaign in April with a total fundraising goal of $45 million, including $10 million for endowment.

The new master plan, designed by Andropogen & Associates of Philadelphia, addresses several longstanding challenges to the garden’s growth, including inadequate parking, an overextended visitors center and an entryway that cuts the garden in two. It was the parking facility—to be shared with Piedmont Park—that stirred controversy and stalled the master plan. With the path now cleared for the parking project, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is ready to blossom.

The garden will build Atlanta’s first signature green parking facility able to accommodate almost 800 vehicles on a one-acre site adjacent to Piedmont Park. Located on an unused portion on the edge of Piedmont Park’s North Woods, the facility will be tucked into a steep slope, painted in earth tones and screened by mature trees and landscaping.

Although the parking issue garnered public attention, other elements of the master plan will capture the public’s imagination. Perhaps the most thrilling will be the Canopy Walk, a 900-foot-long bridge, suspended among the treetops of Storza Woods, inviting visitors to walk from the garden proper to an outdoor classroom. At its highest point, the walk will be 45 feet above the ground. “One of the most exciting things about the woodlands is what goes on up in the canopy,” Matheson said. “Why not take our visitors up into the canopy and orient them to the woodlands from that perspective?”

The Canopy Walk is destined to become “an icon for Atlanta,” Matheson said. It will anchor the garden on one side, with the Fuqua Conservatory and Orchid Center anchoring the other side.

Construction will begin in 2007 on the parking facility and Canopy Walk and Classroom, as part of the master plan’s first phase. Other first phase components include a new Visitors Center, located adjacent to the parking facility, and a Southern Seasons Garden, featuring an array of plants appropriate for year-round gardening.

The second phase, scheduled to start in 2008, includes the Edible Garden at the site of the existing parking lot and featuring vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers. The Cascade Garden will replace the existing entrance drive and include a pond, bogs and tropical plants.

With an anticipated 400,000 visitors per year, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is among the top 10 botanical gardens in the United States. “These improvements will move the garden from good to great,” Matheson said, “and great is what Atlanta deserves.”

Niki in the Garden Opens April 29

Niki in the Garden, presented by Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. will be the world’s largest exhibit of internationally-renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s outdoor sculpture ever presented. On the scale of the phenomenally popular Chihuly in the Garden presented in 2004, this exhibition features Saint Phalle’s imaginative, monumental artworks beautifully displayed throughout the garden for six months.

The artist’s magical and joyful works include enormous animals, totems, sports heroes, mythical figures and most famously her Nanas—oversized, often dancing women celebrating life. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is the ideal place for de Saint Phalle’s work to be displayed because of the artists’ love of nature. The exhibit is made possible by the Niki Charitable Art Foundation.