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Date

9-7-2014

Description

Queens Botanical Garden Visitor & Administration Center, Partner-in-Charge, Opened.

The Queens Botanical Garden is a nexus of botanical and cultural exploration for the most ethnically diverse neighborhood in the United States – Flushing, Queens. The new Visitor & Administration Center is a built extension of the Garden’s mission: to demonstrate environmental stewardship while celebrating the cultural connections between people and plants. To that end, the Center is LEED® Platinum certified, a first for a public building in New York City. From the inception of the project, principles of sustainability led the design process. Water, a natural element significant to all cultures, is re-introduced throughout the site, unifying building and landscape.

The Center is composed of three interconnected spaces: a 10,000 sf forecourt covered by a floating zinc-clad roof canopy, a 15,800 sf/2-story central reception and administration building, and a board-formed concrete clad auditorium space tucked into the landscape itself, sheltered by a 4,000 sf semi-intensive sloping green roof, blurring the distinction between architecture and landscape. Additional sustainable elements include solar panels, a geothermal system, graywater and stormwater management systems and extensive use of recycled and renewable materials.

Comments

Women in the Design World: Work in Progress, an exhibition presented by the Sam Fos School of Design and Visual arts in conjunction with the Women in Architecture Symposium 2014.

Joan Krevlin, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C / Master of Architecture, 1978

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