Balboa Park’s Botanical Building reopens after $26.5M restoration

San Diego’s 109-year-old Botanical Building, a popular landmark in the heart of Balboa Park, will reopen to the public Friday afternoon for the first time in nearly three years after being almost entirely reconstructed according to historic standards.

The debut of the painstakingly restored park attraction, remade at a total cost of $26.5 million, coincides with the start of the city’s annual December Nights festivities in Balboa Park.

Although a year behind schedule and several million dollars over budget, the Botanical Building’s completed restoration should delight and impress visitors, whether they’re familiar with its history or not.

The redwood lath, which defines the building’s visual impact from afar, is all new. The stucco arcades — or the series of large, picturesque arched windows facing the lawn — are back after being removed in the late 1950s, making a strong impact on up-close viewers.

And the distinct architecture of the structure, as seen from its interior, is punctuated by the currently sparse appearance of plant life, which will take a few months to fill in.

There are also two new fountains inside, LED lighting that will be on display for December Nights, an automatic misting system, a new irrigation system, five benches and QR codes for easy plant research. Although not intended for public use, the building also now features a bathroom and two newly constructed storage and staff areas built on the back side of the structure.

“We are making grand of this grand opening, and doing it at the right time, during December Nights, to get as many people in here to see this building in all of its glory,” Jon Richards, deputy director of Balboa Park, told the Union-Tribune.

City officials will celebrate the Botanical Building’s return with a private ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday morning. Then the building be open for limited hours with free-but-controlled access later in the day, from 1 to 7 p.m., and on Saturday, from noon to 6 p.m. The building will be closed on Sunday. It will resume regular operations on Monday and be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The building will also continue to be free to the public.

The heart of horticulture in Balboa Park, the Botanical Building is just one of four remaining permanent structures built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. The open-air structure was designed to demonstrate to international visitors the region’s remarkable climate, which allows for plants to grow without glass greenhouses.

Exposed to the elements and significantly damaged over the years, the structure was already in considerable decline when renovation talks first started in 2013.

At the time, the now-defunct Balboa Park Conservancy had hoped to make improvements in time for the park’s 2015 centennial celebration. As the city’s not-for-profit partner, the conservancy was leading the restoration effort, and even helped advance the project’s schematics, but a lack of funds and complications associated with the public-private partnership thwarted actual construction work.

The work was later split into two phases, with the city eventually taking over the priciest pieces, including all of the infrastructure needs, interior repairs, plant storage and replanting, and some work on the exterior grounds.

In 2021, the city hired general contractor EC Constructors to design and complete the construction work. And the restoration project kicked off in earnest in January 2022, when construction fences were erected around the building.

The project turned into a full reconstruction effort as workers discovered that the existing lath could not be salvaged. The project also involved reconstructing and replacing all of the structure’s steel trusses.

“When the first assessment of the building was done, it was essentially done visually, and so certain assumptions were made. Then when they actually got into the construction and they were able to get up close to the materials and see the joints … it turned out the extent of corrosion (of the wood and steel tresses) was far beyond what was originally anticipated,” said Charlie Daniels, a project officer who works in the parks department. “When they got into the framing, it was absolute garbage. Essentially, this building has been reconstructed.”

The added work combined with intense winter storms extended the project’s timeline by a year. The budget, which started at $21.5 million, grew with the increased time and scope. Last year, the city anticipated spending as much as $28.5 million on the Botanical Building project, although the final amount came in at $26.5 million.

The project has been mostly paid for by the city, although the state contributed an $8.26 million grant in 2019.

Forever Balboa Park, the nonprofit entity that was created when the conservancy merged with Friends of Balboa Park in 2021, assumed responsibility of the second phase of work on the building’s exterior, which is ongoing. The group’s responsibilities, estimated to cost $10 million, include reconstructing the pergola that was on the west lawn, refurbishing the exterior fountains and repainting the exterior balustrades.

Moving forward, the city will eventually look to recoup some of the expenses associated with the building’s upkeep by allowing private parties to rent out the facility, which lends itself to weddings and corporate gatherings. But any decision on permitting will require City Council approval.

“It’s on the table. It will happen … but I don’t have a time frame,” Richards, the Balboa Park executive, said. “I think it’s finding that fine line of allowing (private events) to occur and then also allowing the public use.”

The focus for now, though, is keeping up with routine operations and watching as the plants grow and fill out the space, he said.

For December Nights, the city will lean on assistance from 20 volunteers, who will help manage the crowds. The city has one, dedicated building supervisor to care for the Botanical Building on a daily basis, and it is also paying for around-the-clock security.