The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums (MAAM), a not-for-profit organisation that brings together professionals, organisations, institutions and service providers from the museum sector, has announced that the recipient of this year’s Building Museums Symposium’s Buildy Award is The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center in St. Louis, Missouri, US.
Additionally, three remarkable projects have been awarded Honorable Mentions: the Stanley Museum of Art at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa; the expansion of the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut; and the redesign of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, Arkansas.
These projects were chosen from a competitive array of submissions from institutions in twelve states. They exhibit a variety of museum styles and sizes, demonstrating excellence in design and innovation within the museum sector.
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center
The Buildy Award honours the Missouri Botanical Garden for its leadership, outstanding achievements in the planning, design, and construction of its facility, and its transformative impact on the organisation following its opening. The Garden’s leadership will accept the Buildy Award on 7 March 2025, during MAAM’s 20th Building Museums Symposium.
The award celebrates the institution, its director and staff, along with the design and construction teams whose finished projects exemplify excellence in the teachings of the Building Museums Symposium—thoughtful, innovative planning and committed execution contributing to institutional sustainability.
The Buildy Award seeks to raise awareness within the museum sector and among the general public about the significance of museums, botanical gardens, and other cultural venues. It highlights the necessity of their ongoing development, preservation, and growth to benefit future generations.
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is a transformative addition to the Garden, a National Historic Landmark known for its plant collections and education programs. This $100 million project replaced the original centre and ensured continuous operations during construction. The new facility accommodates 1 million annual visitors, up from 250,000.
The accessible visitor centre features a lobby, visitor services, conservatory, auditorium, classrooms, café, restaurant, gift shop, restrooms, and event spaces. New gardens and outdoor dining enhance the experience. With a separate events centre, the Garden supports public and private events while ensuring continued public access. Expanded spaces for science education and horticultural exhibitions provide year-round programming, even in bad weather.
This customised building features a biophilic design with beautiful interiors connecting to exterior gardens.
The judging process
The Buildy Award Committee observed various elements that led to the success of the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center entry:
- The exceptional design quality, especially in the sunlit areas and the thoughtful incorporation of botanical elements throughout the project. This includes the entrance lobby’s lantern with a perforated scrim that suggests a woodland clearing, restaurant lighting inspired by blooming peonies, wall panels featuring botanical specimens, and the lobby’s terrazzo floor adorned with inlaid brass leaves representing twelve local tree species.
- Various sustainable design elements, such as a 45% reduction in energy costs compared to a LEEDv4 baseline, reliance on healthy, sustainably sourced materials, and decreased water usage.
- Careful project planning, offering key functional enhancements that improve the visitor experience and bolster the financial sustainability of the Botanical Garden through thoughtfully designed, universally accessible, and distinctive revenue-generating spaces while ensuring seamless integration with the current facilities of the Missouri Botanical Garden gardens.
The Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center project team included the Garden’s Executive Leadership Team, Ayers Saint Gross, Alberici Constructors, Tao + Lee Associates, IMEG Corp, KPFF, Civil Design, Inc., and Michael Vergason Landscape Architect.
The Buildy Award is the only program that honours museum leaders and design teams for their contributions to successful planning and construction. Projects of various sizes, types, and budgets are considered, focusing on their impactful outcomes.
Museum directors must balance the conflicting interests of staff, trustees, financial backers, artists, architects, engineers, contractors, visitors, and others involved. Those who win the Buildy Awards have successfully led their teams in creating enduring assets for their institutions and communities while maintaining financial sustainability.
The Buildy Award Selection Committee consisted of the following participants:
- Ann Trowbridge, Smithsonian Institution (retired), chair
- Kahla DeSmit, executive director of MAAM
- Averie Shaughnessy Comfort of Presque Isle Light Station, Lake Erie, Pennsylvania
- Amanda Gillen of Frick Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Julia Joseph of Whiting-Turner Construction Co., Parkville, Maryland
- Martha Morris, founder of Building Museums Symposium
- Deborah Schwartz, president of MAAM
- David Searles of Jacobs/Wyper Architects, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Monika Smith of DLR Group
- Sandra Vicchio of Sandra Vicchio Associates, Baltimore, Maryland
- Nancy Walsh of Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver, Colorado
- Nick West of Colgate University Museums, Hamilton, New York
The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums’ annual meeting took place from 8 to 10 October 2024 in Philadelphia. This event provided delegates with professional development, special events, and the opportunity to network with other museum professionals.
