Published on: December 06, 2016

Tulsa Botanic Garden celebrated the ground breaking for a new multi-purpose building on Thursday, November 10, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. The J.E. and L.E. Mabee Grange (see rendering below) will be located just west of the Children’s Discovery Garden and is expected to open in summer 2017. The building will include over 4,300 square feet of interior space which can be divided into smaller rooms for multiple functions. A small kitchen will be available for private events. 

“This is yet another milestone for the Botanic Garden,” says Garden President & CEO Todd Lasseigne, “this facility will enable the Garden to expand our educational offerings for school programs, informal family experiences, camps, workshops and seminars.”

Tulsa-based Studio 45 Architects worked with Botanic Garden staff and board in design of the building. Construction will be by Ross Group. 

Tulsa Botanic Garden successfully met the challenge for a $1.4 million grant from the J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation for construction of the building. It is part of the Botanic Garden’s “Reaching for Generations” capital campaign.  The comprehensive campaign, with a goal of $17.1 million, is funding construction of four gardens and the building, as well as infrastructure and an endowment fund. Two of the four gardens have been completed: The A.R. and Marylouise Tandy Floral Terraces, a 3-acre ornamental garden which opened October 2015, and the two-acre Children’s Discovery Garden, which opened May 2016. The remaining two gardens, the Lotus Pool and adjacent All Season’s Garden, are currently in design and scheduled to go under construction in 2017.