Auckland Botanic Gardens’ new visitor centre, complete with spectacular artworks, displays and a café surrounded by landscaped gardens, will open next month.

ARC Parks and Heritage Committee Chair Sandra Coney says the new visitor centre is designed to be gateway to the gardens themselves but its striking contemporary architecture is likely to make it a landmark in its own right.

“This has been a long term vision for the Botanic Gardens,” councillor Coney says. “We started this project by asking our visitors what they wanted from a visitor centre this is the result.”

Facilities include a café with indoor and courtyard seating, a large atrium display area which will feature plant displays, an information and orientation area, new toilet facilities and a retail/exhibition space. The building will provide visitors with panoramic views of the gardens.

Artworks from renowned sculptors Fred Graham and Maui ‘Ofamo’oni will complement the visitor centre’s contemporary architecture and surrounding landscaping to give it a distinctively South Pacific feel.

The Visitor Centre will be named Huakaiwaka, a named bestowed on the building by local tangata whenua.

Huakaiwaka is the name of the eponymous ancestor of the Te Waiohua people. He lived in the Manurewa area. Huakaiwaka's descendants live at the many Maori communities in Auckland, Manukau and Franklin.

Cr Coney says the name is extremely prestigious and it is a great honour for the new visitor centre to bear such a name.

The public will have their first opportunity to view the new visitor centre at the Botanic Gardens Festival on Sunday 10 April from 10am to 4pm. Admission is free and there will be food stalls, live music, train rides, plants for sale, botanical art and the annual Palm and Cycad Show.

The ARC invested the majority of funding required to build the new visitor centre. The Council is extremely grateful for additional funds provided by the Friends of the Botanic Gardens, Lotteries Environment and Heritage Committee, Scottwood Trust, ASB Trust and individual donors.

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