As Portland’s first real botanical garden, it’s important to provide context to those who are following and supporting the project. Context helps understand the importance of both size and proximity to a city center, while also recognizing the rapidly decreasing green space accessible to such a project. As more apartment complexes go up, there’s less space for a botanical garden of this caliber to provide access to nature in a continually evolving cityscape.
Metrics
We’ve selected six botanical gardens from around the United States—plus Kew—that we think provide the best case for our project. While we highlight Houston Botanical Garden to better understand how a new botanical garden fits into a cityscape, we’ve also included much older examples that were built during early city growth.
Maintaining Green Space
In our research, there’s a precedent for redeveloping unused and bankrupt golf courses into botanical gardens as a way to maintain urban green space. This kind of redevelopment has proven to be lucrative for the city due to tourist attraction and international recognition. To learn more about the importance of urban green space, click here.
HOUSTON BOTANIC GARDEN
Est. 2020
140 acres
10.5 miles from City Hall
DENVER BOTANIC GARDENS
Est. 1951
23 acres
2.3 miles from City Hall
CHICAGO BOTANIC GARDEN
Est. 1972
385 acres
24.8 miles from City Hall
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW
Est. 1759
326 acres
8 miles from London
MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN
Est. 1859
79 acres
4.5 miles from City Hall
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN
Est. 1910
52 acres
4.2 miles from City Hall
