Nan Sterman is known for her expertise on the most "water wise" plants for a garden, but many of her go-to selections need direct sunlight. When the city of San Diego tapped her to design the planters in Balboa Park’s Botanical Building, which reopened to the public on Friday, she had her work cut out for her.
"There’s a huge difference between the amount of light that each wing gets," she said. "We have a sunny side on the west, we have a shady side on the east, and we have a transition zone in the center.”
Some of the larger plants were either left in place or moved to an offsite nursery during the three-year, $26.5 million renovation project. Those are now mostly in the eastern wing, along with other tropical plants that grow well in filtered light.
"The east side is really green,” Sterman said. "The west side is purple and orange and red and yellow."
Sterman said many of the plants she picked for the west side will produce fragrant flowers, like Gardenia thunbergia.
"It doesn't look like a whole lot now, but that's going to get to about 10 or 12 feet tall,” she said. "It's going to have these really cool sculpted leaves, and then it makes these white, fragrant flowers."
Another favorite of hers is Dracaena arborea. There are three of them in the center planter on the west side.
"They're going to have all kinds of straggly, scraggly branches and be very sculptural. I hope that within my lifetime, I get to see them start to take on that structure,” she said. “I chose those thinking 100 years ahead."
The building is designed to last, too. All of the redwood and most of the steel frame had to be replaced after years of wear and tear. The new redwood has a protective coating and the steel is covered in marine-grade epoxy.
“We hope that it will last another 100 years,” said Edgar Lozano, the City’s senior civil engineer.
The old building had wood strips running all the way down the sides of both wings. Now, there are arched windows all around the building.
"In the 1950s, there was a major renovation where they practically removed all of the window arcades, including the doorways, and replaced it with wood lattice coming all the way down," Lozano said. "Our job was to bring it back to the original 1915 design."
Sterman also likes the addition of a new misting system, which is especially important for the tropical plants.
"When that mist system is on, if you're in here, it is the coolest thing," she said. "It looks like Jurassic Park."
The Botanical Building is open until 7 p.m. Friday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday. Starting Monday, it will be open every day except holidays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
