Naples Botanical Garden
Naples Botanical Garden
Naples, Florida
Founded in 1993 by a visionary group of local conservationists, plant enthusiasts, and philanthropists, Naples Botanical Garden (NBG) is often described as a tropical oasis, a 170-acre respite from its rapidly developing surroundings in Naples, Florida. In 2000, the late Harvey Kapnick, Jr. donated five million dollars to purchase the coveted open space just three miles from the city’s downtown. Landscape architects Ellin Goetz, Ted Flato, Raymond Jungles, Herb Schaal, Bob Truskowski and Made Wijaya, dubbed the “Dream Team” by the Miami Herald, completed NBG’s original Master Plan in 2006. The original plan is comprised of approximately nine acres of geographically-themed gardens and approximately ninety acres of Natural Lands, an exceptionally valuable asset encompassing a wide range of endemic habitats.
In the thirteen years since its grand opening, NBG’s attendance had grown rapidly: the Garden now accommodates over 260,000 visitors per year. In 2021, NBG leadership solicited proposals for a comprehensive business, operational, and Master Plan that would allow for the Garden’s continued growth and longevity. The Garden had reached a critical moment; its popularity was quickly surpassing its capacity, leading to disorientation, crowding, and an inability to grow. In response, the master planning process identified ways to give the Garden room to expand, and to continue fostering the existing charm that is so cherished while leaning into its mission.
NBG is a trusted and growing cultural institution, one that is emerging as a global leader in the conservation of tropical biodiversity. The Garden’s partners range from early childhood educators to local municipalities to international centers for research and academic study. As a mission-driven organization, the Garden’s mission and core values served as the “north star” for all planning efforts at the Garden:
Naples Botanical Garden conserves the plants and habitats of the tropics, cultivates beauty, offers knowledge, and inspires protection of nature.
To deliver on this mission, provide solutions to the challenges the Garden faces today, and unlock new opportunities for the organization’s future, the 2023 NBG Master Plan identifies a large patchwork of underutilized “opportunity zones;” spaces that became the opening for gracious multi-modal circulation, intuitive path hierarchy, additional botanic collections, and dedicated workplaces. The Master Plan establishes a financially feasible and phaseable plan for mission delivery, growth, and inclusion. A motivated donor group is dedicated to seeing this plan realized, reinforcing NBG’s identity as a place of beauty, inspiration and leadership in tropical conservation.
Sea level rise and flooding are an existential threat worldwide, and the Garden’s position in low-lying coastal Florida necessitates a robust response to sea level rise, nuisance flooding, and storm events. Indeed, at the midpoint of the planning efforts, Hurricane Ian hit the gulf coast directly, causing widespread loss of life and property damage including at the Garden.
Tropical conservation is both an existential and a social imperative—flora found in the tropical regions encompasses nearly half of the world’s biodiversity, much under extreme threat due to development pressures and lack of country-specific resources. NBG holds a preeminent international role as a trusted conservator and partner for Tropical Conservation and Research with many conservation institutions worldwide. New facilities and spaces allow the Garden to focus and grow this aspect of their organization. In addition, the Garden’s local position is ecologically significant: the Garden sits at the crossroads of three endemic ecoregions and sits contiguous to seven thousand contiguous square miles of conserved lands to the south including some of most biodiverse places on the continent, including the Everglades and Fakahatchee Strand.
Project timeline: 2021-2023
Client: Naples Botanical Garden
Scope: Master Planning
Project Type: Culture | Garden
Size: 170 acres
Partners:
GLMV - Architecture
Canopy Strategic Partners – Business Planning
JR Evans – Civil Engineering
ETM Associates – Maintenance Planning
