INSIDE ON CAMPUS

University of Texas System regents authorize union of UT Austin, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Plans under way to make the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center a component of UT Austin will provide the center with new opportunities for interdisciplinary work with university faculty and students on sustainable development projects, landscape restoration research, community engagement programs and completion of its Garden Master Plan to provide the university with a new “truly great” botanic garden, officials said.

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s Members Garden was created to honor the center's 18,000 paid supporters. The Member's Garden features a variety of colorful, fragrant Central Texas native plants. -Photo by Ronald Sprouse

Discussions have been under way for some time about a mutually beneficial union between the university and the nonprofit center. The plan is for the center, with its native plant education, research, outreach and demonstration programs, to become an Organized Research and Outreach Unit of the university, integrated into the College of Natural Sciences and the School of Architecture. The center includes more than 283 acres of landscapes, botanical gardens and architecturally compelling buildings in Southwest Austin.

A Memorandum of Intent approved by the UT System Board of Regents on June 20 authorizes the university and the center to finalize a permanent agreement that would transfer to the university the center's assets. This includes its acreage, facilities and substantially all of the center's endowment valued at $8.5 million.

"Such a union would be a proud and happy one for me, and, I believe, in the best interests of the center and the university," said Lady Bird Johnson, who founded the center in 1982. "My devotion to both is complete. The university opened the doors of the universe to me. By the time I had earned two degrees, I realized that education was the beginning of a quest that lasts, and it enabled in me a greater capacity to enjoy the world. These qualities emboldened me to establish the center."

University of Texas at Austin President William Powers Jr., said, "The Wildflower Center was founded as a site for research and education and has become not only one of the nation's most beautiful botanical gardens, but a leader in promoting the environmental, economic and aesthetic benefits of native plants. We see this union as one that will benefit both the university and the center."

While the Wildflower Center has numerous celebrated gardens, its Garden Master Plan is a roadmap for developing a “truly great” botanic garden, such as those at Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, said Susan Rieff, executive director of the Wildflower Center. The center's gardens would be devoted exclusively to Texas native plants.

“The connection to the School of Architecture and its excellent landscape architecture program makes this especially exciting,” Rieff said.

The center will complement resources in place at the university, including courses in botany and landscape architecture and the Environmental Science Institute. It will extend research opportunities for faculty and students through the Environmental Studies Institute and the Center for Sustainable Development.

Lady Bird Johnson proudly displays wildflowers and native plants in the Wildflower Center's Entrance Garden. -Photo courtesy of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Examples include the center's work on plant conservation, expanding the application of "green building" standards to large-scale landscapes and examining the water and energy-saving performance of green roofs developed with native plants.  These initiatives are aimed at harmonizing environmental needs with human needs, using native plants to address environmental problems. The merger provides another venue and opportunity for interdisciplinary work on sustainable development, Rieff said.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to continue the legacy of Lady Bird Johnson and the Johnson family's contributions to education in Texas and the nation," said James R. Huffines, chairman of the Board of Regents. "We are deeply appreciative of this generous gift and are committed to making the Wildflower Center broadly available to students, scholars and members of the public."

Mrs. Johnson served as a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents from 1971 to 1977.

Collaboration between the university and center has been under way for years through joint research initiatives, use of the Wildflower Center as a research field site, professional conferences, advisory council meetings and adjunct faculty appointments for Wildflower Center scientists.

As part of the university, the center would remain open to the public with its full range of classes, children's activities, and art and gardening festivals. The center's governing board would become a university advisory council, and center staff would become university employees.

The center was founded in 1982 by Mrs. Johnson and actress Helen Hayes as the National Wildflower Research Center. It was originally located in a small house on an undeveloped 60-acre plot of land off Route 973 east of Austin. In 1995, the center moved to its present site, then totaling 43 acres, and opened a complex of facilities designed as a model of total resource conservation by Overland Partners of San Antonio. In subsequent years, the center acquired an additional 236 adjoining acres. Its mission is to increase the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants and landscapes.