Botanical Garden of the Piedmont, Inc.

Mission

The mission of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is to invite all community members and visitors to engage in nature, to educate and inspire through the beauty and importance of plants, to advance sustainability, and to promote human and environmental well-being.

Our Vision: Today and for the Future of the Garden is

• Create and maintain the garden designed to unite plants natural to our region with appropriate architecture and landscape design.
• Provide access to the garden and its natural spaces for exploration, observation, and restoration.
• Present affordable, engaging programming to provide educational and inspirational experiences for all ages.
• Commit to inclusion, excellence, and upstanding management while maintaining a positive impact on the eco-system and our community.

Centrally located in the Piedmont of Virginia, the city of Charlottesville has no large public spaces that are not dedicated to commerce. By its very nature, the downtown walking mall was not designed for gathering and lingering, and its seating areas are reserved for paying customers. When events like those on the weekend of August 12, 2017 occur, the hard edges of the mall offer no place for civic discourse, comfort or solace. Botanical Garden of the Piedmont (BGP) plans to fill this void by offering a green space that brings people and plants together, as well as offers opportunities for education, celebration, community engagement and more.

Responding to the feedback of the community from a series of community input sessions as well as an online survey, the BGP Master Plan won a National award for Analysis and Planning from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Each year, the ASLA Professional Awards honor the best in landscape architecture in the general design, analysis and planning, communications, research and residential design categories from the United States and around the world. In 2019, the ASLA had received 544 entries from projects around the world, of which 36 received awards. In awarding the prize for the Master Plan for BGP, the ASLA jury noted that:

 "This master plan for a new botanical garden in a park in Charlottesville, Virginia, was driven by the community’s aspirations, insights, and desire for a place of healing and unity. Responding to the steep topography of the wooded site, the plan calls for terraced gardens and discovery walks, play areas, meadows, groves, wetlands, a waterfall, and event spaces, all facilitating natural and personal exploration. The plan calls for the site to be sustainable and resilient, encouraging a new kind of civic engagement that demonstrates how landscape can influence both the ecological and cultural systems of a community." - 2019 Awards Jury