Birdseye conceptual rendering illustrating improved accessibility, sustainability improvements, and features to grow educational and research opportunities. The conceptual design highlights changes that will make Beal Botanical Garden more informal and create a more natural environment for wellbeing and learning. Image credits: SmithGroup (original concept) and Eva Roos (revisions).
The Beal Botanical Garden Land Use Plan provides a roadmap for the garden's future, ensuring it remains a vibrant resource for learning, research, wellbeing, and environmental stewardship. Guided by the garden's values, the Land Use Plan reimagines how visitors engage with plants and the natural world while preserving Beal's role as a living laboratory for teaching and discovery across disciplines.
Inspired in part by Professor Beal's "wild garden," this plan embraces a less formal, more environmentally responsive approach that reflects the garden's commitment to building a future where people and plants thrive together. Guided by our Rewilding initiative, this new approach will help us fully embrace our relationship to our environment, the Red Cedar River, and the realities of being in a floodplain, while also centering the collections as the heart of the garden, continuing the 150+ year legacy of Professor Beal and his focus on learning.
Over the coming years, the plan will transform the garden into a more accessible, sustainable, and welcoming space. Improvements include enhanced gathering and learning areas, expanded opportunities for research and education, increased physical accessibility, and landscape features that support our regional biodiversity and ecological resilience. This work will allow us to work with nature rather than against it, becoming better stewards of our local environment. Doing better by nature extends beyond Beal's borders. Through the Land Use Plan, the garden also hopes to become a source of inspiration, serving as a sustainable stewardship model both for Michigan State University and our greater mid-Michigan communities.
Current view of Beal Botanical Garden from West Circle Drive (above). Photo credit: Eva Roos.
Rendering of a preliminary design for a new garden entrance from West Circle Drive (above). Improvements will include an accessible ramp, a garden that provides streetside presence for Beal and welcomes everyone, and a more natural landscape highlighting native plants and Michigan's natural heritage. Image credit: Eva Roos.Making a gift to the Beal Botanical Garden Land Use Plan is investing in spaces that inspire discovery, foster belonging, and demonstrate innovative approaches to sustainability. Together, we can make this vision a reality, creating a more resilient garden that will endure for future Spartans to enjoy. Any gift of any size makes a difference.
If you are considering a larger gift or a naming opportunity to support the Land Use Plan, please contact Liz Ivkovich, Senior Director of Advancement, at lgi@msu.edu.
Environmental conditions, climate pressures, and changing community needs require new approaches. Our Land Use Plan allows us to:
This shift reflects our responsibility to care for this place in ways that will serve future generations while also honoring the history of the "wild garden" that Professor Beal envisioned.
The Land Use Plan allows for greater garden accessibility, giving all who visit access to the expanded learning opportunities it will offer. By rethinking and reorganizing how our plant collections are designed, this will create more dynamic and diverse landscapes to explore, enjoy, providing shared spaces for our visitors to reflect and connect with both nature and each other. It also provides a safe, introductory space for visitors to create stronger ties with the natural world.
The vision for the garden's next phase is the culmination of a multi-year planning and feedback process. Guidance and recommendations from a planning committee with representatives from across campus, community open house sessions, and ongoing opportunities for student feedback helped set the stage for a plan that is deeply integrated into the needs and dreams of MSU.
We deeply value the emotional connection our visitors have to this space. This land use plan, and our rewilding initiative, does not erase memory, it builds the next chapter. Our approach honors the garden's legacy while ensuring it remains vibrant and relevant for future generations to enjoy.
The planning for implementation of many of these design elements is already in progress. Enhancements for some areas of the garden may begin as early as 2026. However, many design improvements aren't expected to begin until at least 2030.
Photos below courtesy of Carolyn Miller (left, center) and Bethany Troy (right).