INSIDE TUCSON BUSINESS: Mon., July 3, 2006
Builders support Tucson Gardens pavilion
Weddings, receptions and other private and public gatherings will have a new place to go this fall, as a new open-air pavilion is built at the Tucson Botanical Gardens.
Celebrating the groundbreaking of the project on June 27 were members of the botanical gardens and other supporters, along with Tucson City Council Member Nina Trasoff. They welcomed the start of the $150,000 structure, which will add 1,600 square feet of community meeting space to the gardens on Alvernon Way, near Pima Street.
Designed by Tucson architect H.J. Krzysik and sponsored by members of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association, the pavilion is the first major expansion for the gardens since completion of the education building in 1998. It's also a welcome addition to the gardens' limited meeting space, said Executive Director Nancy Laney.
“Right now, we're booked solid,” she said. “With this new pavilion, we'll have more space for classes, workshops and various private and community events. It's also bigger, which means we'll be able to handle larger events, which now require us to set-up in the parking lot.”
Calling it the “perfect collaboration of a non-profit with private business,” Laney said the partnership with the home builders' association's members is allowing the botanical gardens “to undertake this major project. That's why this is very exciting for us.”
Commenting on the project, botanical garden board member and general contractor John Wesley Miller said, “We expect to get the concrete work done in early July and hope to be finished in time for the butterfly affair in October. That's cutting it close, but we'd love to be done by then.”
He said support for the project, which will be named the SAHBA Pavilion, has come from several association members, who are contributing materials, labor and money. “Hank Krzysik donated his architectural services, Richard Ebeltoft contributed half his structural engineering fee, and KB Home has volunteered to do the concrete work. Johnson-Manley Lumber is not only contributing the lumber and materials, he's also donating the labor for constructing the roof structure.”
Miller said Tucson Electric Power is contributing the photovoltaic system that will power the pavilion, and The Solar Store will be doing the installation. Survey work was donated by Jeff Anderson and the welding and testing of metal components will be done by Western Technologies. Other donors included Don Laidlaw, John Schmindt, Jim Singleton, Judith Bliss, CAP and Sun Lighting. Borderland Construction contributed money to pay for equipment and services not donated, and a grant from the Stonewall Foundation will pay for the Moonlight Garden, which will ornament the pavilion's entrance.
“A pavilion like this is perfect for Tucson because it will be usable nearly year-round,” Miller said. “To be able to make it happen for the Tucson Botanical Garden is something SAHBA members can be proud of. I'd like to have people think of us as the original environmentalists, and something like this gives us the chance to put our effort and money where our mouth is.”