Botanica Gardens is a 17-acre plot of land located in the heart of Wichita, Kansas. It includes attractions such as the Downing Children’s Garden, Chinese Garden of Friendship, Woodland Bird Garden, Butterfly House and Garden, Woodland Walk, Garden on the Rocks, and many more. In 2014, the owners of Joyland, an amusement park that was a staple of the community for over 55 years before closing in 2006, elected to donate the park’s carousel to Botanica. Since then, the carousel has been in restoration, a project that has taken nearly four years and over $25,000.00 to complete. The pavilion houses the carousel, and will be an exciting new addition to the Gardens, allowing past generations to bring the next to enjoy the ride in a beautiful garden setting. The three-million-dollar project broke ground in October, 2018. Site crews began steel erection in January 2019 and it is expected to open in September of 2019.
The pavilion is an octagonal shaped building designed around the renovated carousel. It includes seating areas surrounding the carousel and a small room with tables and chairs for occupants to relax and enjoy watching the carousel or wait for a ride. Glass paneled garage doors encase most of the building, allowing open airflow when weather allows, and a view of the surrounding gardens when it is necessary to keep the doors closed. The roof is also partially composed of glass panels to allow more natural light to illuminate the carousel. In the center of the roof is a smaller, octagonal shaped cupola structure that was fabricated as one piece and lifted into place using a crane. Using the Tekla model, we came to the realization that this would be much easier than field assembling the structure, as called out in the contract drawings.
