San Diego gives first look at new inside of Botanical Building as work continues

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As construction continues to move along in the massive $21 million renovation of the Balboa Park Botanical Building, San Diego officials offered a sneak peek on Tuesday at the iconic greenhouse’s new interior.

In a social media post, city officials showed the groundwork for the building’s new accessible walkways, as well as the foundations for new planter walls and drains. The structure’s newly restored mullioned windows are also boasting a pastel green trim.

The interior planting process is also underway, welcoming back hundreds of plants that had been moved from the Botanical Building to the Parks and Recreation Department’s nursery at the beginning of construction.

“We are making progress on the #BalboaPark Botanical Building improvements project, both inside and out,” city officials wrote in the post. The video accompanying the city’s post can be viewed in the player above.

These gardens capture the beauty of the San Diego area

The Botanical Building has been closed off to the public since 2022, when crews broke ground on the area’s beautification. First pitched in 2016, the two-phase undertaking is the most extensive refurbishing work the hundred-year-old building has had since the 1950s.

The Botanical Building, which was originally built in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition, had sustained significant damage by the time crews began working on the restoration, including warped wood, dry rot and structural decay to its steel structure.

Because of this condition, city construction crews had to strip the structure down to its foundation and steel bones, creating a jarring sight for visitors. By mid-December, the fa?ade of the Botanical Building began to take shape again. Weeks later, its roof was complete, commemorated by the replacement of the Cupola that originally sat at the top of the building.

According to city officials, crews are on track to reopen the Botanical Building for visitors by early fall 2024. Then construction will begin in the second phase of the project, which is led by Forever Balboa Park and focuses on the gardens surrounding the greenhouse.

A rendering of what the project will look like when both phases are completed can be found below.

When it reopens, Forever Balboa Park, the nonprofit caretaker of the San Diego County landmark, said they hope to bring a handful of new programs to the garden like training programs in horticulture, as well as opportunities for performances and other events for visitors.

“My vision for this would be that we’ve got every K-12 student in San Diego, and hopefully from around the region, coming to visit and it becomes a real hub for learning,” Forever Balboa Park CEO Dr. Elizabeth Babcock said to FOX5SanDiego.com last year.

“I’m really excited about what it represents for people’s experience in the park,” she continued. “It’s going to be a fun and lively, vibrant space.”

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