The Buffalo Bills’ new stadium isn’t the only major attraction finishing next year.
Construction is officially underway on a $31-million project at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, adding 120,000 sq. feet. That will include more gardens, an outdoor space, learning labs and a welcome center.
Seeing the work being done now helps State Senator April Baskin appreciate the many calls from former botanical gardens president David Swarts when she was a county legislator, Baskin said.
"It's important for families to be able to have assets like this, to be able to come on the weekends or after school and enjoy," she said. “I'm so glad that we in Buffalo have such historical monuments such as the gardens. And when I think about the title of this project, 'Growing Beyond the Grass,' how fitting.”
More than 94% of the project's funding has been secured, and $2 million of the total costs are left to reach the financial goal, current gardens president and CEO Erin Grajek said.
Governor Kathy Hochul is motivated to throw support behind the garden because of what it meant to her growing up in the area, she said.
“This is where you came for vacation, right. You didn't have a lot of money to go on fancy trips. You came here. You thought you were going to the tropics," she said. "You thought you were going to a desert. You can use your imagination to this thing of all the places around the world that you probably were never going to get to in person."
Botanical gardens staff say fences will go up next week, but the space will remain open throughout the construction process.
