Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center by MVLA (Michael Vergason Landscape Architects)

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center brings new life to one of the country’s most significant horticultural institutions. By prioritizing the Garden’s mission “to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life,” the Center is a gateway to the Garden’s collection, now hosting 1.25 million annual visitors.

To realize this mission, Michael Vergason Landscape Architects (MVLA) collaborated closely with Garden leadership and the architectural team, to reimagine the visitor experience and strengthen institutional identity. By addressing longstanding limitations of the existing facility, the design integrates landscape and architecture into a cohesive new arrival sequence. The program includes a new visitor center, interior and exterior event spaces, a conservatory, and expanded gardens, all structured around the site’s original planning axes. Throughout construction, the Garden remained open to the public.

The arrival sequence immediately immerses visitors in the botanical collection. Gently sloped walks welcome large numbers of families with strollers and elders with wheelchairs to enjoy the North Garden’s themed planting, ‘Woodlands of the World.’ Seat walls along the walks invite visitors to pause. These walks also ease the flow of circulation and queuing during seasonal events like Garden Glow. Gabouri Limestone from a local quarry is used throughout for seatwalls, fountains, and paving. The building’s stone portal serves as a gateway to a light-filled atrium inspired by a clearing in the woods. The terrace discreetly conceals a 50,000-gallon rainwater cistern for reuse in greenhouse irrigation.

From the atrium, biophilic elements frame views into the garden, fostering a sense of connection and wellbeing. The design highlights the site’s original planning axes to improve wayfinding. A primary view terminates at an existing ginkgo tree. Its leaf pattern is abstracted on a scrim in the atrium, casting shadow patterns across the walls and floor.

MVLA collaborated closely with the Garden’s horticultural staff to broaden the plant palette, emphasizing climate resilience. Many of the rare and endangered species were grown from seed in the Garden’s own greenhouses, sourced from regions along Missouri’s latitude worldwide. The planting design unites the Garden’s educational mission with a cohesive and immersive landscape experience, ensuring it remains not only a place of beauty and biodiversity, but also a living classroom for generations to come. Seasonal beauty is highlighted throughout the landscape to reflect the changing rhythms of nature.

New woodland and grassland gardens surround the Center, emphasizing plant diversity and visual cohesion. Transitional spaces create visual and physical transparency between the building and landscape. The immersive planting surrounding the dining terrace changes the experience throughout the year.

The South Garden’s planting theme, ‘Grasslands of the World,’ provides a gathering space before and after tours. It features a living collection of over 46,000 plants representing over 300 species from around the world, many of which are endangered. The planting connects the local plant palette with the global reach of the institution, reinforcing its leadership in the world of plant science and conservation worldwide.

At the southern end of the garden, views open to the iconic 1960s Climatron, the first geodesic dome used as a conservatory, reinforcing the Garden’s identity as a place of discovery and learning. The path network connects new and existing facilities, reinvigorating older buildings and isolated gardens, such as the Ottoman Garden. A new southern entrance incorporates the historic Linnean House, the oldest continuously operated public greenhouse west of the Mississippi River, into the expanded circulation system.

Cubic limestone benches line the central corridor of the South Garden, creating places to rest and to enjoy garden views. Pervious paving along the benches manages stormwater. Additional details include the integration of fountains offering sensory relief and inviting moments of pause and contemplation. Designed to evoke a sense of calm, these features transform the Garden into an oasis in the heart of St. Louis.

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
Design Landscape Architect: Michael Vergason Landscape Architects
Landscape Architect of Record: Arbolope Studio

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
Design Architect, Architect of Record & Interiors: Ayers Saint Gross
Local Architect: Tao + Lee Associates

• Other credits:
Civil Engineering: Civil Design, Inc
Structural: KPFF
Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing: IMEG Corporation
Fire Protection: IMEG Corporation
Graphics: Ayers Saint Gross
Lighting: RBLD
Technology: IMEG Corporation
Acoustics: McClure Engineering
Conservatory: Rough Brothers, Inc
Accessibility: Cohen Hilberry
Food Service: Ricca
Furniture Dealers: CI Select and POE
Construction Manager: Alberici Constructors

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