Images: Work on Atlanta Botanical Garden expansion kicks off

Midtown landmark Atlanta Botanical Garden opened 50 years ago, as of this year, and hasn’t expanded its physical footprint since. But that’s about to change. 

Three and ½ years after expansion plans initially came to light, demolition work has recently kicked off to set the stage for the Garden to grow by 25 percent in coming years, becoming in the process Atlanta’s “first major arts and cultural institution directly accessible from the Beltline.” 

The Garden’s construction crews have begun demolition of buildings along Piedmont Avenue that were acquired for assembling the nearly 8-acre expansion in recent years. 

Once those properties are cleared, plans call for officially breaking ground on the project by late summer, according to Garden spokesperson Danny Flanders. 

The current, revised goal is to finish construction and open the expanded attraction by late 2028 or early 2029. 

Garden officials are in the final stages of completing a $160 million capital campaign that’s funding the expansion, Flanders said. 

That tally includes a lead gift of $25 million from the James M. Cox Foundation, along with other gifts from Garden trustee Carol Tomé and her husband Ramon Tomé ($10 million) and the UPS Foundation ($5 million), alongside a $40 million grant from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation.

Designs call for bringing the Garden’s current 30-acre offerings northward, via a series of terraces and “rooms,” linking with completed sections of the Beltline’s Northeast Trail. 

Specific components will include a programmable Beltline Plaza outside the Garden gates, designed for a “variety of free, mission-oriented programs and community engagement opportunities for people of all ages,” per the latest project description. 

Also facing the Beltline, a new visitor center will feature bicycle parking, a bike shop, an indoor-outdoor café, and other amenities. 

Once inside the Garden’s gates, the expansion design is described by project leaders as follows: 

“… a series of immersive experiences will be organized along a central Grand Axis, providing a strong linear sightline through the center of the expansion site, with dramatic views between garden rooms. 

From the majestic Water Terraces near the Arrival Court, through the enchanting Walled Garden, and up to the dramatic Fountain Garden on the property’s highest point, visitors will delight in exploring this best-in-class greenspace.”

On the opposite side of the entrance, positioned up the hill, a jewel-box orangerie, or a greenhouse for growing oranges, is also planned to bookend the experience.

Initial timelines had called for the expanded gardens to be unveiled in time for Atlanta’s FIFA World Cup matches—and the Garden’s 50th anniversary—in 2026. But that was contingent on storage facility company Public Storage vacating their building on the expansion site, just north of today’s Garden, and relocating to a new facility on the flipside of Piedmont Park along Monroe Drive.

That five-story Public Storage facility finally finished construction last fall at the doorstep of the Beltline’s Eastside/Northeast trails and Piedmont Park (and was the subject of this tongue-in-cheek reader poll).  

That move was key to a complex and controversial land swap between the Garden and Public Storage.

Beltline DRC members in 2023 criticized the Public Storage project’s lack of retail space or residential uses such as townhomes as “a missed opportunity” and “a use that does not belong on the Beltline or anywhere near it,” but the project moved forward nonetheless. Throughout the process, Public Storage officials declined to provide Urbanize Atlanta with details on construction timelines or what they actually were building.  

Hoerr Schaudt, a Chicago-based landscape architecture firm, was hired by the Garden in 2022 to lead designs of the expansion, alongside other firms that include Atlanta-based Smith Dalia Architects.

Find more context and the latest glimpses of what’s to come at the Garden in the gallery above. 

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