Botanical Center opens colorful new chapter
On a gorgeous, sunny Friday, the Quad City Botanical Center introduced a colorful new chapter to its long-running story.
In the growing, 10-year-old Children’s Garden, the center (2525 4th Ave., Rock Island) opened its $830,000 Storybook Landscapes.
The new outdoor exhibit area was carefully thought out to elicit memories of storybooks from people’s childhoods while creating new ones for today’s youth, executive director Ryan Wille said.
Complete with a shaded picnic area, a QCBC story-themed photo opportunity, flower talk tubes, a millhouse, wishing well, costume hut and acting area, spider net arbor, a bedtime story plaza, a group reading structure and storyteller’s chair, there is something for both the young and the young at heart.
Its location is right off the garden’s mini-Mississippi River for quick access and is designed to be accessible within ADA standards, leaving no barriers to experiencing the garden.
The new Storybook Landscapes exhibit was designed by Eric Hornig of Hitchcock Design Group (Naperville, Ill.) and was constructed by The Weitz Company (Rock Island).
It was funded wholly by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Capital Museum Grant Program, Wille said Friday before the ribbon-cutting.
The city of Rock Island maintains ownership of the QCBC property and leases it to the center, allowing it to qualify for the state grants, he said. A total of $3 million from Illinois DNR has supported the center Children’s Garden over the years, Wille said.
The QCBC has built and expanded the Children’s Garden over 10 years and it’s become one of the facility’s most treasured resources, Wille said. “This adventurous and interactive garden, spanning almost two acres, is a perfect introduction for Quad-City youth and is often what most people think about when deciding to visit us.
Record attendance in 2023
“Over its decade of existence, this Children’s Garden has been a driving force in our attendance,” he said, noting 2023 saw record-breaking attendance of nearly 80,000 people.
The Storybook Landscapes will increase the center’s visitor stay time and achieve a broader range of exhibits. Plant selections were chosen for their boldness, interesting structures, colors, and playful nature, Wille said.
The curved steel rainbow was a special challenge for the builders, said Blake Mosher, project manager for Weitz Construction, which built the new areas. He credited Local 111 ironworkers.
“You have never seen a group of union ironworkers so amazed at trying to figure out to how to keep steel from deforming, to stay at the same elevation,” Mosher said.
“These guys’ kids, their grandkids will be playing on this. It was an exciting opportunity for them to contribute,” he said.
“We had to come together and learn how to be different builders and at the end of the day, it’s our hope that as people are coming through here in the future, they’ll say, how can we make it better, how can we improve on the built environment?” Mosher said.
“It never ceases to amaze me how the Botanical Center continues to come up with great, creative ideas to interact with the public,” Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms said Friday afternoon. “It is a great experience throughout the grounds here, from inside to out. They’ve done a great job.”
Free books available
The opening of this garden kicks off the QCBC 1,000 book giveaway. You can visit the Little Free Library wheelbarrow in the lobby for a free book. Books vary in interest and reading level, with a variety of titles available in Spanish.
Books were made possible by the Rock Island Rotary Club and the Quad Cities Community Foundation – Young Family Endowment for the Quad City Botanical Center.
That donation was about $1,500, Wille said. The Rock Island Public Library will host its free summer reading kickoff at the Children’s Garden on May 30, 2024 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., including 15 other local organizations and free ice cream and popsicles provided by the Gas & Electric Credit Union.
Wille said the new gardens are meant to link literacy and nature.
“A lot of these books are focused around nature; we’ve got multiple languages represented here as well, and we’re just hoping to connect two things we think are very vital,” he said.
The QCBC was inspired in part by a botanical garden in Sheboygan, Wis., called the Bookworm Gardens, Wille said. “It’s worth a trip if you’ve never been there.”
For more information on the center, click HERE.
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