The $90 million construction of the 104,000 sf Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Mo, marked the beginning of a new chapter in the institution’s more than 160-year-long story. The new visitor center’s predecessor opened in 1982, serving 250,000 yearly guests. 37 years later, and with a yearly visitor count of more than 1 million, the botanical research and education center began development on the new LEED Gold facility to enhance accessibility for individuals with disabilities and increase visitor capacity.

To protect botanical life surrounding the construction site and ensure that a portion of the existing visitor center was always open and functional, Castle divided its $1.9 million earthwork and site utilities scope between three phases. By dividing our scope between three phases. Phase one included 3,000 lf of excavation, trenching and backfill between electrical rooms, existing structures and other areas of the Garden. This work supported future tie-ins as well as manhole, conduit and additional underground electrical installations.

Phases two and three introduced additional excavation and backfill for more than 4,000 lf of sanitary and sewer lines, as well as geotextile filter fabric and clean rock installation for 1,000 lf of drain lines. During phase two, Castle also installed two 25,000-gal stormwater detention tanks for a new subterranean rainwater collection system, allowing the Missouri Botanical Garden to reuse rainwater for plant-life irrigation. Two precast sections comprised each concrete tank, supporting an efficient installation process and accommodating maximum holding capabilities within the tanks’ condensed footprints. Castle’s scope during this stage included trench sloping and excavation of the pit for the detention tanks, setting all precast sections, wrapping both structures with geotextile fabric, installing pipe, and backfilling the area to complete the installation.

Since its grand opening in 2022, the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center continues accommodating more than 1 million yearly guests, fulfilling its mission to enrich and preserve life by discovering and providing accessible knowledge of plants and their environments.