Botanical Building, Balboa Park
On December 6, 2024, San Diego city dignitaries, staff and members of the local community gathered in Balboa Park to announce the reopening of the Botanical Building. The building had been closed for several years for a $26.5M renovation project that restored it to its original 1915 state and added interior misters, state-of-the-art lighting and new water features. The Botanical Building was built for the 1915-16 Panama–California Exposition and is one of only four structures in Balboa Park that were designed to remain as permanent features following the Exposition. It is one of the largest remaining structures in the world using lath, the thin strips of wood (redwood in the Botanical Building) that form the large exterior arches of the building’s roof and center rotunda.
San Diego, San Diego County
Photographer: John Bare