TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 4 PM

*Last entry is an hour before closing

TODAY'S HOURS: 8 AM – 4 PM

*Last entry is an hour before closing

Explore the Campus

Fort Worth Botanic Garden Events

Located in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District and just minutes from downtown, our combined 120-acre campus offers stunning garden views, horticultural displays, exciting exhibits, gift shops, a café and more.  The Fort Worth Botanic Garden was established in 1934 and is the oldest major botanic garden in Texas. It contains a collection of more than 2,500 species of plants. Long celebrated for its beautiful rose, perennial and Japanese gardens, the FWBG is composed of twenty-three specialty gardens, including a tropical conservatory, a forest boardwalk, and a water conservation garden. In addition, the Garden contains numerous naturalized areas and vistas.  Spend the day strolling through the Japanese Garden with its koi-filled pools, landscaped hillsides, crafted stonework and dramatic waterfalls. One of the most romantic gardens is the iconic and must-see Rose Garden, which features hundreds of roses, formal hedges, perennials and annuals.  This garden, built with 4,000 tons of rock from Palo Pinto County and completed in 1933, is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Step inside and explore the tropical plants in the 10,000-square-foot rain forest conservatory.  Finally, visit the BRIT building where you will learn about botanical research through fascinating art galleries, libraries, dried plant specimens and science-related exhibits. BRIT, an international scientific research and learning center, has a mission to conserve our natural-world heritage by sharing knowledge of the plant world and helping the public understand the value plants bring to life. The research institute serves as a think tank and a catalyst in conservation. Schedule a tour of the Philecology Herbarium, which houses more than 1.5 million plant specimens from around the world, making it one of the largest herbaria in the United States, or the BRIT Research Library with nearly 125,000 volumes of botanical books and journals. 

Sustainability

BRIT is committed to environmental sustainability. Through careful site design, responsible landscape management, and conscientious human behavior, BRIT seeks to reduce its footprint on the natural world as well as protect and restore ecosystem services. The new BRIT building was designed to accomplish several key goals: reduce energy and water consumption, enhance indoor environmental quality, and use recyclable and renewable materials. This was achieved through daylighting, photovoltaic panels (solar energy), low-flow and low-energy fixtures, low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) materials, wool and linen furnishings, certified wood products, and recycled-content steel and rubber, to name a few. In addition, the BRIT landscape—with its native plants, vegetated walls, bioswales, living roof, and retention pond—was designed to eliminate use of potable water, reduce overall maintenance costs, curb energy consumption, extend the life of building materials, mitigate urban heat island effects, and manage onsite stormwater. But our sustainable campus means little if the people using it are personally wasteful. Therefore, BRIT’s employees and users are encouraged to model sustainable personal practices, such as recycling, composting, and water and energy conservation.

The BRIT building and campus serve as an educational tool for the community, highlighting the myriad ways both organizations and individual citizens can improve their own sustainability. We also intend the campus to serve as a research site for local scientists. Our stormwater management system and our living roof, in particular, are innovative designs; long-term studies of their performance will inform and greatly benefit the green building and design industry. Plus, the reintroduction of two native ecosystems (Fort Worth Prairie Barrens and mid-grass prairie) into an urban setting will provide researchers a chance to study colonization patterns of both native and invasive plants and animals.

LEEDing the Way to a Greener Tomorrow

Our new 70,000-square-foot home in the Fort Worth Cultural District is one of only eight buildings in Texas to earn the platinum certification in the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green Building Rating System™.

The U.S. Green Building Council, a coalition of building industry leaders, educators and government agencies, created the LEED® Green Building Rating System as a voluntary market-driven protocol. The Council awards different levels of certification based on total credits earned.

Under the LEED rating system for new construction, BRIT’s headquarters was awarded 56 points.  USGBC rating system requires a score of 52 or higher to achieve its platinum rating. The building’s estimated energy savings is approximately $37,000 per year, which is 50 percent higher than energy code recommendations.

Fort Worth Botanic Garden Events
The Fort Worth Botanic Garden Events