Botanical Garden's New Plant

Staff -- Interior Design, 5/1/2002 12:00:00 AM

The New York Botanical Garden has opened its International Plant Science Center, now consisting of the state-of-the-art William and Lynda Steere Herbarium and the expanded and restored Beaux Arts–style LuEsther T. Mertz Library. (The planned Pfizer Plant Research Laboratory is due to break ground in 2003.) The 70,000-square-foot herbarium, home to the botanical garden's research collection of nearly seven million specimens, was designed by New York–based Polshek Partnership Architects, the firm behind the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History. Polshek also handled the interior renovation and expansion of the 1901 Mertz Library, which now features a gallery by Stephen Saitas Designs, a 2,600-square-foot entrance hall, and terrazzo floors. Cabrera/Barricklo Architects restored the building's exterior. 718-817-8616; www.nybg.org.