FWD 2 Botanical Research Institute of Texas Unveils $48 Million Research Center

HerbalEGram: Volume 8, Number 6, June 2011

Botanical Research Institute of Texas Unveils $48 Million Research Center
On May 21, 2011, The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) unveiled its remarkable new $48 million campus in Fort Worth, TX.1 The new structure more than quadruples the square footage of the 24-year-old nonprofit’s former warehouse headquarters in downtown Fort Worth, providing ample space for research and education, and room to grow for BRIT’s notable herbarium of over 1 million plant specimens.1,2 The new campus is also a model for green energy and sustainability due to its rainwater capture system, latest-generation rooftop solar panels, and sustainable wool carpets, to name just a few of its Earth-friendly features.1 Indeed, the institute hopes to garner a Platinum rating from the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

BRIT was founded in 1987 “as a nonprofit organization to house the Southern Methodist University Herbarium, consisting of 450,000 specimens, and its botanical library with 75,000 volumes.”2 Its mission is to “conserve our natural heritage by deepening our knowledge of the plant world and achieving public understanding of the value plants bring to life.”3

The institute opened to the public in 1991, and, in the years since, the nonprofit has acquired herbaria from the Houston Public Museum, Dartmouth College, and the Heber W. Youngken Sr. Collection of Medicinal Plants, the last of which was formerly housed at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and was literally “rescued” from being sent to a landfill and later donated to BRIT by the American Botanical Council in 2003.2,4 As of 2010, BRIT’s library contained 125,000 tomes, and the botanically identified, dried plant specimens in its herbarium numbered 1,050,000.2

“The building is a tangible manifestation of [BRIT’s] vision; it’s green from floor to ceiling,” said Sy Sohmer, PhD, president and director of BRIT (personal communication, May 27, 2011).

Dr. Sohmer said the organization has been planning its new home since he arrived at BRIT in 1993, but that the “real” planning started in the mid-1990s. In 2005, the Fort Worth City Council granted BRIT a lease on the land abutting the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, and groundbreaking was held on December 14, 2009.2 The new structure, Dr. Sohmer said, is “a vehicle with which we can welcome the community inside—we couldn’t do that before.”

One of the new campus’s most laudable features is its “living roof,” which was designed by Texas Christian University scholars and is populated with flora native to the Fort Worth region (W. McClatchey, personal communication, May 26, 2011). “The thing about it that probably makes it most interesting is that it represents the progress of a series of experiments,” said Will McClatchey, PhD, BRIT’s vice president and director of research. “You almost never hear of architecture being the result of scientific research, at least not from a biological perspective,” he added.

According to Dr. McClatchey, the majority of BRIT research is performed in the field. While some researchers will continue to utilize BRIT headquarters as a home base of sorts, scientists now can utilize the new facility’s spacious grounds to conduct a broader array of ongoing experiments on-site, especially with respect to sustainable agriculture.

In addition to conducting research and tending its impressive library and herbarium resources, BRIT contributes to the botanical community through adult and K-12 educational programs.5  Furthermore, BRIT Press publishes a biannual journal, Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, and has published books on subjects “ranging from floras to systematic monographs to botanical histories” since 1987.6

BRIT’s new facility can comfortably house 80 staffers, according to Dr. McClatchey, who noted that BRIT jobs in Fort Worth have doubled over the past year. “Job creation can only come with raising more money,” said Dr. Sohmer, “but raising more money might be easier because of this building.”

“BRIT’s new headquarters is nothing less than astonishing,” said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal, who visited the new center in May of 2011. “I was truly amazed at the level of research and careful planning and environmental sensitivity that obviously went into the creation and construction of this impressive new facility—as well as the incredibly successful development and fundraising effort that this project represents. The entire global botanical community owes Sy Sohmer a huge debt of gratitude for his persistence, and organizational and development skills,” he added. “ABC looks forward to the prospect of working more closely with our friends at BRIT on research and education projects of mutual interest in the coming years.” Both Drs. Sohmer and McClatchey are members of the ABC Advisory Board.


—Ashley Lindstrom

References

1. Ward A. Botanical institute’s new home is built for the future. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. May 20, 2011.

2. BRIT timeline: our history. Botanical Research Institute of Texas website. Available at: www.brit.org/about/history. Accessed May 31, 2011.

3. About. Botanical Research Institute of Texas website. Available at: www.brit.org/about. Accessed May 31, 2011.

4. ABC donates Youngken Herbarium to the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. HerbalGram 2003;58:9. Available at: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue58/article2475.html. Accessed May 31, 2011.

5. BRIT education. Botanical Research Institute of Texas website. Available at: www.brit.org/node/103. Accessed June 1, 2011.

6. BRIT Press. Botanical Research Institute of Texas website. Available at: www.brit.org/brit-press. Accessed June 1, 2011.