Botanical Garden Visitor Center Building Team Recognized In ENR’s “Best of the Best” Contest

Date Posted: March 31, 2025

Posted In: Organizations, People,

On March 27th the design and construction team members on the Missouri Botanical Garden’s (MOBOT) new visitor centered were honored on March 27th in New York City.

MOBOT’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center was chosen to represent the category “Best Cultural/Worship”. The project was submitted by IMEG engineering consultants, the MEP engineer on the project. Other team members named in the recognition were  Architect: Tao + Lee Associates; Lead Design Firm: Ayers Saint Gross; General Contractor: Alberici; Structural Engineer: KPFF Consulting Engineers; and Landscape Architect: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects.

In its summary on the submission, ENR stated: “Protecting delicate and rare plants and trees from around the world was one of the challenges of building the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis.

“The LEED Gold-certified, 91,700-sq-ft facility features 50-ft walls in its lobby and houses an event center, meeting spaces, restaurant with garden views, auditorium and conservatory. The project, which replaces the previous 1980s-era visitor center, was built to respond to the soaring number of visitors, which grew from 250,000 in 1982 to more than 1 million in 2018.”

The project was one of 20 selected from over 800 entries. Over 100 construction professionals and ENR editors were involved in initial the selection process, narrowing the field to 200 entries in 20 categories. A separate team of judges then made the final selections.

On this segment from IMEG’s podcast “The Future. Built Smarter,” insight into the project is provided by guests Zach Carter, client executive and associate principal IMEG and Deniz Piskin, vice president for facilities and construction at the MOBOT.