7.2 BUILDINGS

Background

A number of buildings have been erected in the Gardens to provide facilities to maintain the plantings and infrastructure: visitor information, research, herbarium, education and library facilities, and office accommodation for staff. Some of these are inappropriately sited and no longer meet the functional needs of the organisation. Figure 7.1 shows the existing buildings and structures at the Gardens in Canberra.

At Jervis Bay the Gardens are less well developed and the only buildings to have been constructed are an administration complex, a picnic shelter and a cottage, the "Green Hut", now used for interpretive displays (see Figure 1.2).

Management prescriptions

Objectives

The objectives are to ensure that the buildings and structures meet the functional needs of the staff and visitors and that they facilitate efficient operation of the Gardens and are designed and sited in harmony with the landscape.

Implementation

Implementation of this plan will require construction of new facilities and the refurbishment of existing buildings in Canberra to accommodate new functions. Five major developments, listed here in priority order, are planned for the Gardens' Canberra site during the life of this Plan. Figure 7.2 shows the locations of each of these developments.

  1. Construction of a new nursery facility will be built in the northern part of the Gardens. The existing Nursery, built in the late 1960s and inappropriately sited on fill over a gully, will be demolished and the site will be redeveloped.

  2. A new horticultural maintenance and trades and service complex will be developed in the northern part of the Gardens to replace the present scattered and inefficient facilities.

  3. A new visitor information centre will be built, strategically located to orient visitors before they enter the major areas for display of the living collections. The existing Visitor Information Centre (built in 1984) will be refurbished for use as office accommodation.

  4. The Herbarium Botany Building complex and Research Centre will be redeveloped. Expansion of the current Herbarium facilities will be necessary during the currency of this Plan and may require the construction of new facilities for storage and research. New developments will be planned to meet the needs of the Centre for Plant Diversity Research (see Section 4.6).

  5. A gathering place - a `common' - will be developed on the major pedestrian spine, with a new kiosk and possibly a playground nearby. This will require demolition of the northern portion of the Public Programs building, constructed in the late 1960s.

The development planning guide to be prepared for the Gardens at Jervis Bay will examine the adequacy of existing buildings and the need for further buildings at that site.