I’ve finally been to see the new Visitors’ Centre at the Botanic Gardens, and, frankly, it didn’t impress me.
I thought the building looked like a plastic glasshouse (if that’s not an oxymoron), and not at all attractive from the outside. Have you seen it? What did you think?
“I was surprised it looked like this
our much-praised garden edifice.”
I haven’t been to it; just looked at it from a distance. From a distance, it seems to fit in to the surroundings.
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A friend and I both thought that up close it looks tacky.
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I shall have to investigate closer.
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I enjoyed going inside. There was a great display of the history of gardening, and an attractively set-out shop. There is a function/conference room which looked useful The cafe looked crowded and noisy. I liked that you could look into the glasshouses at the plants inside – like looking into the working part of the Botanic Gardens.
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I think the inside is more attractive than the outside. If they grow more plants in front of it it will look better.
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Like you Ruth, I think it would look more inviting with gardens full of colour in front. Perhaps that will happen in time.
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I certainly hope so.
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it is at least modern looking from your photo. There will be more unusual shapes around I suspect as christchurch gets back on its feet.
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I think it’s one of those things we’ll get used to; it will grow on us. I quite enjoy the fact that it looks like a flashed up glasshouse. What I didn’t enjoy was the less that wonderful cafe service. They need to sort that one out!
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We’d hoped to have afternoon tea, and there were some spare tables, but the friend I was with has multiple chemical sensitivities, and found their cleaning products affected her badly, so we couldn’t stay.
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I went into the cafe yesterday intending to have lunch and it was full and extremely hot. Not sure if that is artificial heating or the building is warm because of all the glass – summer will tell. Jury out for me on how I feel about the building itself. The shop is very flash – I kind of wish it had more genuine gardening accessories, seeds and plants rather than glamorous, decorative things. I’d like to see classes and information for the citizens of Christchurch not just touristy stuff.
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I agree that the shop is touristy and expensive. The old information centre used to sell plants at reasonable prices. I wonder what’s happened to those.
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