The Pittsburgh Botanic Gardens, one of America's largest and newest, will open its new visitor center and education complex April 1st, marking a new phase for a garden with a checkered history. The new building also includes a cafe and gift shop.
The Garden first opened in 2015, with about 60 of its 460 acres now open to the public as work continues on restoring and landscaping the rest, which was formerly used for logging and coal mining. Shortly after the Garden received the land from the city of Pittsburgh, the 2004 Hurricane Ivan flooded the former mines and destabilize sizable parts of the property, requiring years of clearance, pumping, draining and other work, which is continuing.
The new building's opening coincides with the opening of another new feature, a parking area described as an 'auto garden,' with careful landscaping as well as a 177,000-gallon storm-water detention system underneath, which collects rainwater runoff from nearly seven acres of the property, and will eventually make the Garden independent of city water.
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