“NATIONAL TROPICAL BOTANICAL GARDEN TO HOST GRAND OPENING EVENT TO CELEBRATE RENOVATION OF SOUTH SHORE VISITORS CENTER”

Free tours of McBryde Garden, live music, food, craft sales and in-store promotions to be featured at free community event.

McBryde and Allerton Gardens of the National Tropical Botanical Garden will host a Grand Opening event to celebrate the renovation and expansion of the South Shore Visitors Center on Sunday, December 13, 2015. This special event will take place between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. at the South Shore Visitors Center located at 4425 Lawai Road in Po`ipu.

The event will feature a ribbon cutting ceremony and blessing, Oshibana craft sale, live music, food for sale by Living Foods Gourmet Market, and in-store promotions and giveaways perfect for holiday shoppers. The Visitors Center will be open normal operating hours from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and visitors are invited to take free self guided tours of McBryde Garden all day.

“The renovation of the Visitors Center is the last element of the transformative process the South Shore Gardens have been going through over the last 18 months. We have added new infrastructure, dynamic experiences in McBryde Garden, event space, and now have transformed the Visitors Center experience,” said South Shore Garden Director Andy Jasper.

Nearly 20 years ago in 1997 the creation of a South Shore Visitors Center began with the relocation of a plantation supervisor’s cottage from Numilo to the Visitors Center site across from Spouting Horn. The restoration of this cottage earned the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation’ s Preservation Honor Award for its careful restoration and adaptive reuse as a gift shop, ticketing center and office for the South Shore Gardens.

“We’re so excited to be able to adapt the cottage once again and have it grow right along with us, “said Jasper. “This renovation will make the building, restrooms and visitor program accessible to all and add new facilities including a grab-and-go café with food and beverages prepared by Living Foods Gourmet Market, departure lounge, and double the retail space,” he continued.

The plan to renovate the historic building has also brought together the finest team of architects, planners and builders from the state and Kauai including Don Goo, internationally-acclaimed architect, NTBG Trustee, and 2015 American Institute of Architects’ Medal of Honor recipient, Avery Youn, Architect, the late Spencer Leineweber, architectural historian, Scott Fiorovich, landscape architect, and Mike Faye and his team at Kikiaola Construction.

Event contacts: Tessa McSwain, Marketing Manager, 808-346-2470, tmcswain@ntbg.org, Scott Sloan, Interim South Shore Garden Director 808-651-9879