Courtesy of Fort Worth Botanic Garden
The Rose Garden at Fort Worth Botanic Garden
The Fort Worth Botanic Garden | Botanical Research Institute of Texas, the oldest botanic garden in Texas, is taking steps to ensure its future is as bright as its past.
On Tuesday, the organization announced the launch of a master-planning committee, as well as the selection of Studio Outside, a Dallas-based landscape architecture firm, to design a comprehensive master plan to inform the direction and priorities for the next 20 years of infrastructure and facility improvements across the 120-acre campus.
“Creating a long-term, inspiring guest experience is the main purpose of this long-term master plan,“ Bob Byers, FWBG | BRIT executive vice president and co-chair of the committee, said in a statement. “This plan will connect horticulture, botanical science, and the Fort Worth community, leading us toward our strategic vision of being renowned globally and treasured locally.”
The master-planning committee led by former Fort Worth City Councilman Dennis Shingleton comprises members from throughout the community. Represented are Fort Worth civil servants, local garden associations, the Fort Worth school district, board and staff of FWBG | BRIT, and other community advocates and developers.
“We made a conscious effort to ensure that members from the city, FWBG|BRIT staff, former task force, and other longtime garden supporters were represented on this committee,” Shingleton said in a statement. “We will also be reaching out to Fort Worth residents requesting their input throughout this process, so it will truly reflect the opinions of our broad, diverse community.”
After a national search, Studio Outside landscape architects were chosen to deliver the final master plan in a 12-month timeline. Studio Outside and its team of architects, civil engineers, and landscape architects offer a collective competency in master planning and botanic garden design.
Its portfolio includes previous projects at the garden and similar projects across the nation, such as Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky, and the Water Conservation Garden at Red Butte in Salt Lake City.
“The master plan, which will evolve over the next 12 months, promises to fortify the garden campus as a premier horticultural institution in the nation,” Tary Arterburn, Studio Outside principal in charge, said in a statement. “This site is very unique, not far from the banks of the Trinity River, offering a perfect transect of ecosystems that are riparian [related to a riverbank], escarpment [a steep slope], and prairie all in one place.”
The oldest portion of the garden is the French/Italian revival rose garden, constructed in 1933 and with a place on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been recognized as emblematic of the period of the municipal rose garden, which spanned the years between 1927 – 1937.
A website has been created for the master-planning effort: brit.org/masterplan.