The future home of BRIT is on a tract of land adjacent to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, in an area of the city designated as the Cultural District. BRIT will raise necessary funds to build a state-of-the-art facility and landscape the property in a manner that effectively extends the visual impact of the Garden to the corner of University and Harley.
This represents years of study, analysis, and planning on the part of BRIT staff, trustees, and supporters. The location of BRIT adjacent to the Botanic Garden would place the living plants at the Garden with the dried plant specimens at BRIT for a full spectrum of scientific, horticultural, and educational purposes, providing a world-class collection of plants for display, study, conservation, and research. Both organizations would have significant net gains in visitation, stature, and the ability to attract both a national and international audience.
The City Council approved a resolution (18 March 2003) to provide the land to BRIT for $1 each year for 99 years.
An editorial in the Star-Telegram (4 October 2002) stated: “Although not well-known to the general public, BRIT is a nationally recognized botanic research and conservation organization with a huge outstanding collection of about 1 million dried plants representing many of the earth’s plant families. It has one of the world’s premier collections of Texas plant specimens. It also has educational programs and a stellar botanical library containing more than 75,000 books, periodicals and journals from more than 90 countries… In short, there doesn’t seem to be any reason for city and BRIT officials not to work together to make the institute’s dreams of a new headquarters building come true.”
