FORT WORTH, Texas — Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), an international cultural and scientific center for conservation (www.brit.org), has begun construction of its $48 million, 69,000-square-foot facility, which will be located on a 5.2-acre site at 1800 University Drive, adjacent to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden in the Cultural District.

    BRIT will seek the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™ Platinum certification for the facility, which would be the first at that level in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the second in the North Texas area, and the fifth in Texas. The building will be one of the first in the region to have a "living" roof, which will be planted with flowering plants of the Fort Worth Prairie variety suitable for the climate.

    Completion is scheduled for early 2011. H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture LLC is the design architectural firm for the project, and Balmori Associates, Inc., is the landscape design firm, both of New York.

    Tim McKinney, chair of BRIT's Board of Trustees, said, "BRIT's new home will be the embodiment of BRIT's mission: to conserve our natural heritage by deepening our knowledge of the plant world and achieving public understanding of the value that plants bring to our lives."

     S. H. Sohmer, Ph.D., BRIT's director and president, said, "Our new facility will demonstrate our commitment to sustainable design and environmental responsibility. It will have a proper environment for our priceless herbarium and library and a fascinating atmosphere for botanical study for the researchers, educators, and the thousands of schoolchildren whom BRIT serves annually."

    The new facility will include the Suzanne Rall Peacock Learning Center, a new program endowed by The Rainwater Charitable Foundation for educators to learn how to teach their students about conservation and nature.

About BRIT
    BRIT fosters respect for ecological balance and the interconnectedness of all living things, the conservation of biological diversity, the integrity of scientific investigation and intellectual pursuits, and the desire to discover the unknown to expand humankind's knowledge and understanding of plants in our natural environment.

    Opened to the public in 1991, BRIT has one of the largest herbaria in the United States, the largest independent herbarium in the Southwest, and one of the world's best collections of Texas plant specimens. Its herbarium contains more than one million dried plant specimens representing most of the Earth's plant families. Its 100,000-volume library includes books, periodicals, and journals from more than 100 countries. The basis for BRIT's herbarium and library is the Lloyd H. Shinners Collection in Systematic Botany, which is on permanent loan to BRIT from Southern Methodist University, where it originated in 1943.

    BRIT's staff has conducted extensive research in Texas, much of North America, and in the tropical rainforests of the Philippines and Costa Rica. Currently the staff is studying the flora/fauna connection in the rainforests and tracking the diversity of and identifying new plant species in Peru and Papua New Guinea.

Contact Info: Cleve Lancaster, Director of Development,
clancaster@brit.org,
817.332.4441, ext. 212; cell 817.917.0273;
Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Inc.,
500 E.4th Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102

Website : Botanical Research Institute of Texas