Marie Selby Botanical Gardens - Living Energy Access Facility (LEAF)

A new Welcome Center to properly accommodate and orient guests. A cutting-edge Plant Research Center that will include a state-of-the-art Herbarium and Laboratory as well as a Research Library to appropriately steward rare books and prints dating to the 1700s.

The Living Energy Access Facility (LEAF) that will house parking, a gift shop and a garden-level restaurant – capped with a 50,000-square-foot solar array that will make Selby Gardens the world’s first net-positive botanical garden complex. As part of the LEAF, a stormwater filtration system will treat stormwater runoff and return clean water to Sarasota Bay.

The entire 10-year master plan consists of three phases that will increase the botanical garden’s green space by 50 percent, help preserve the historical structures on the 14.73-acre property and build new first-of-its-kind buildings.