Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center (252 acres) are private botanical gardens and a nature preserve located in the center of Orange, Texas.
H. J. Lutcher Stark began work on Shangri La in 1942. His azalea gardens first opened to the public in 1946, but in the mid-1950s they were destroyed by very cold weather. The area was subsequently closed to the public and maintained on a very limited scale. It was then bequeathed by Nelda C. Stark to the Nelda C. and H. J. Lutcher Stark Foundation (established 1961), which has been working to restore the botanical gardens and create a nature center.
Shangri La contains a mixed deciduous forest, cypress tupelo swamp, wetlands, and a large lake. Many of its trees were heavily damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Rita in September 2005. The formal Botanical Gardens contain more than 300 plant species in five formal "rooms" as well as four sculpture "rooms." Adjacent to the Botanical Gardens is a bird blind which allows visitors to observe nesting birds in Shangri La’s heronry.
It opened in Spring 2008 to close again for nearly six months due to the damage sustained from Hurricane Ike (Sept. 2008) and was reopened to the public on March 7, 2009.
Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center is the first project in Texas and the 50th project in the world to earn the U.S. Green Building Council's Platinum certification for LEED-NC; the design and construction of Shangri La reached the highest green building and performance measures.
Grand Isle is a town in Jefferson Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located on a barrier island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is at the mouth of Barataria Bay where it meets the gulf. The town of Grand Isle is statistically part of the New Orleans−Metairie−Kenner metropolitan statistical area, though it is not connected to New Orleans' continuous urbanized area.
The 1943 Surprise Hurricane was the first hurricane to be entered by a reconnaissance aircraft. The first tracked tropical cyclone of the 1943 Atlantic hurricane season, this system developed as a tropical storm while situated over the northeastern Gulf of Mexico on July 25. The storm gradually strengthened while tracking westward and reached hurricane status late on July 26. Thereafter, the hurricane curved slightly west-northwestward and continued intensifying. Early on July 27, it became a Category 2 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale and peaked with winds of 105 mph (165 km/h). The system maintained this intensity until landfall on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas late on July 27. After moving inland, the storm initially weakened rapidly, but remained a tropical cyclone until dissipating over north-central Texas on July 29.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30 acres (12 ha) botanical garden located adjacent to Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Incorporated in 1976, the garden's mission is to "develop and maintain plant collections for the purposes of display, education, conservation, research and enjoyment."
Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a botanical garden set in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is a City of Pittsburgh historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Beaumont Botanical Gardens, also known as the Tyrrell Park Botanical Gardens, includes botanical gardens and the 10,000 sq ft Warren Looseconservatory. The gardens are located in 500 acre Tyrrell Park at 6088 Babe Zaharias Drive, Beaumont, Texas, USA. An extra benefit is that the gardens are located in a migratory bird flyway. Tyrrell Park is listed on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail map.
Herbert S. Anderson, known commonly as H. S. "Andy" Anderson, was an American woodcarver, one of the recognized masters of 20th-century woodcarving, most famous for Scandinavian flat-plane style of woodcarving and caricature carving.
The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is a botanical research institute located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1987 for the herbarium and botanical library collections of Lloyd H. Shinners from Southern Methodist University but has subsequently expanded substantially. BRIT focuses on plant taxonomy, conservation and knowledge sharing for both scientists and the general public
The New Orleans Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located in City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana. The first classical garden in New Orleans, it was funded by the Works Progress Administration.
The Stark Museum of Art in Orange, Texas, houses one of the nation's most significant collections of American Western art. The Western Art collection conveys the artistic interpretation of the western region over two centuries.
Living Shangri-La is a mixed-use skyscraper in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is the tallest building in the city and second tallest in the province. The 62-storey Shangri-La tower contains a 5-star hotel and its offices on the first 15 floors, with condominium apartment units occupying the rest of the tower. The building's podium complex also includes a spa, Urban Fare specialty grocery store, a Vancouver Art Gallery public display, and a curated public sculpture garden. The high-rise stands 200.86 metres (659 ft) tall and there is a private roof garden on floor 61. It is the 34th tallest building in Canada.
The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design is housed in the former home of Doris Duke near Diamond Head just outside Honolulu, Hawaii. It is now owned and operated as a public museum of the arts and cultures of the Islamic world by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (DDFIA). Guided tours depart from the Honolulu Museum of Art, which operates the tours in co-operation with DDFIA.
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin is the state botanical garden and arboretum of Texas. The center features more than 900 species of native Texas plants in both garden and natural settings and is home to a breadth of educational programs and events. The center is 284 acres and located 10 miles southwest of downtown Austin, Texas just inside the edge of the distinctive Texas Hill Country. It straddles both Edwards Plateau and Texas Blackland Prairies ecosystems.
The West Orange-Cove Consolidated Independent School District is a public school district in Orange County, Texas.
Mercer Botanic Gardens is a public botanical gardens that includes landscaped garden beds and natural areas located at 22306 Aldine Westfield Road in northern Harris County, Texas, United States. The gardens are managed by Harris County Precinct 3 and open daily with free admission.
The San Antonio Botanical Garden is a 38-acre (150,000 m2), non-profit botanical garden in San Antonio, Texas, United States, and the city's official botanical garden.
Duke Farms is a 2,700 acre center for environmental stewardship in Hillsborough, NJ, that restores the natural environment, invests in sustainability innovation while offering visitors free inclusive and accessible resources for finding their place in nature.
The Baytown Nature Center is located in Baytown, Texas, 20 miles (32 km) east of Houston. It is located on a 450-acre (1.8 km2) peninsula along the Houston Ship Channel and surrounded on three sides by Burnet Bay, Crystal Bay, and Scott Bay.
The W.H. Stark House is a fully restored, 14,000-square-foot (1,300 m2) Victorian home located on the corner between Green Avenue and Sixth Street in Orange, Texas.
Lutcher Theater is a privately owned, 1,450-seat, non-profit performing arts facility located at 707 Main Street in Orange, Texas. It was built in 1980 and is the largest Performing Arts Series from Houston, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, with annual attendance at approximately 30,000 adults and children.
H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports is an archive and museum dedicated to the study and preservation of the world of physical culture. It is located at the University of Texas at Austin. Through the donations of the Nelda C. and H.J. Lutcher Stark Foundation and the Betty and Joe Weider Foundation, the Stark Center opened in 2009, providing access to the center's extensive collection of materials on weight training, bodybuilding, athletic conditioning, alternative medicine, and other forms of self-improvement. The collection, considered the largest of its kind, comprises thousands of books and magazines, an extensive photograph collection, correspondence files, posters, videotapes, films, and artifacts. The center's directors, Drs. Jan and Terry Todd, both former powerlifting athletes, are committed to preserving the history of physical culture.
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