01/11/2024
This past Tuesday, Overland was pleased to attend the Grand Opening and Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony for Phase 1 of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. This ambitious project, spearheaded by our visionary client Jennifer Rominiecki and supported by the generous philanthropy of the local community, continues the legacy of Selby’s original mission of connecting people with nature and propels it into the 21st century with the design of this new facility.
The iconic new Welcome Center greets guests as an open-air pavilion adorned with plants, which orients people to the experience they are about to encounter with the Gardens.
The new Plant Research Center serves as a home for all of Selby’s employees and volunteers while simultaneously serving as the heart of scientific research and botanical collections for the Gardens.
The Living Energy Access Facility, or L.E.A.F. for short, turns the idea of a parking garage on its head by transforming it into a piece of green infrastructure. The 50,000 sf rooftop solar array will power the entire campus of buildings and generate a surplus of energy that will be pumped back into the grid. This will offset over 1,000 tons of cardon dioxide every year… equivalent to powering 150 American homes annually or planting nearly 15,000 trees. This innovative approach will make Selby Gardens the World’s First Net Positive Energy Botanical Complex.
On the ground level, a new restaurant called the Green Orchid, will be the World’s First Net Positive Energy Restaurant as well and serve world-class cuisine to guests. All of which will be prepared in the fully electric kitchen powered by the on-site solar array and with ingredients grown on the rooftop culinary garden.
These and many other strategies will make Selby a new global leader in sustainable botanical gardens and serve as a model of abundance and resilience for generations to come.
Celebrate with us as we embrace a new era for Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. To learn more about the events celebrated yesterday read more here: https://bit.ly/3RWE8FX.
Thank you to our incredible collaborators on this project: Kimley-Horn, Olin Partnership Ltd, Arup US, Inc., LAM Partners, and 180 Solar