Denver Botanic Gardens- Denver, CO

Denver’s botanical garden is the perfect colaboration of plants and architecture. Here, vintage, mid-century and modern designs provide the backdrop for beautifully executed theme gardens.

Established in 1951, on land that was once the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery, the garden started with a few rose beds and water lily ponds, tended by the local garden club.

In 1958, founding Denver Botanic Gardens member Ruth Waring purchased the adjacsent 1926 Beaux Arts mansion designed by Jules Jacques Benoit Benedict and donated it for use as the organizations headquarters. That same year, San Francisco landscape architect Garrett Eckbo was retained to design new water features and themed gardens.

In 1964, Victor Horbein and Ed White, Jr. designed the gardens signature mid-century modern tropical conservatory, which featured innovative concrete arches. Outside, concrete “trees” acted as lamp posts, the globe lights as “fruits.”

Not incidentally, the sponsor owned a concrete company. Regardless, the conservatory’s etheral design was immediately lauded, and designated a Denver architectural landmark just seven years after its completion.

In the 1970s, Eckbo added a series of waterways at the gardens, all inconnected and originating at the Brutalist Four Towers Fountain. Decades later, in 2014, a 34 foot high pyramid consisting of hexagonal panels in a honeycomb design was constructed adjacent to the fountain. Despite stylistic differences, its visually congruent, and complemenatary.

At 24 acres, it’s truly is an oasis in the middle of the city, with excellent architecture, and dozens of themed gardens to explore.