Edinburgh Botanics staff move in as £16m visitor centre blooms

Published on Monday 3 August 2009 11:07

STAFF at the Botanics are today moving into their new £16 million home after completion of building work on the visitor centre.

The striking John Hope Gateway will be officially opened to the public in October.

They will now spend the next two months installing exhibitions and planting a biodiversity garden outside the visitor centre.

Delays to the project mean a grand opening, when it is hoped a member of the royal family will attend, is now to be held next spring, when the plants will be at their best.

Before then, members of the public will be able to enjoy use of the new space, which regius keeper Stephen Blackmore believes will provide the sort of facilities the garden needs in the 21st century.

"While there is still a lot of work to be done, this is a real key moment for us as now we can get in and start putting the finishing touches to it," he said.

"Because of the delays, we have decided to hold off on the grand opening until next year, so that we can get the biodiversity garden completed and re-plant the ground around the new centre so it looks its best.

"We want to get it open to the public, however, and I think it is a fantastic building, and exactly what the garden needed.

"Another key aim for us was replacing the old Victorian toilet block, and providing more space for people to get a coffee or just sit and relax."

While builders are still carrying some snagging work on the curved structure at the West Gate, RBGE was due to officially take charge of the building today.

Though still far from completed, there are already some striking features in place at the centre, including a central spiral staircase which winds out of the ground like a twisting tree root, and was designed to mimic the double-helix of a DNA strand.

Such natural forms are included throughout the design.

As well as these flourishes, the building has been designed for very practical reasons, including providing modern toilet facilities for the thousands of people who visit the garden each year.

There is also a large restaurant area, which can be used for corporate hospitality, and a large outdoor seating deck looking down on what will become a biodiversity garden.

The centre itself, part-powered by a wind-turbine, includes staff rooms, conference rooms and a specially designed schoolroom for visits by classes of local children.

The main floor of the building hosts two exhibition spaces.

As well as the wind turbine, the centre includes eco-friendly features such as a bio-mass boiler, solar panels and rainwater collectors.

Mr Blackmore said: "Obviously it helps us as it will provide a lot of energy for the building, but as well as that we wanted to show people how this technology works, and how it can be incorporated into a modern building."