The Living Energy Access Facility at Sarasota’s Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is as much at harmony with nature as the 80-ft bunya-bunya tree it was designed and constructed around.

Built with post-tensioned concrete on shallow foundations and stone columns, the team set out to construct one of the most sustainable structures of its type in the world, seeking a Living Building Challenge recognition, surpassing requirements for LEED certifications.

Designed to be hurricane-resistant, the building is powered by a 50,000-sq-ft solar array on the fourth floor capable of producing 1.23 gigawatt hours of electricity—enough to power the building and offset almost 1,000 tons of CO2 annually and qualify the Selby Gardens as the world’s first net-positive botanical garden complex. Stormwater across the campus filters into a 140,000-gallon stormwater vault before being circulated through bioswales and returned to Hudson Bayou. The site also features an almost 48,000-gallon lily pond with waterfall features.

The 45-acre complex includes a four-story, vine-covered parking garage with about 450 parking spaces as well as several electric vehicle charging stations. Putting a parking garage in the midst of the much-loved gardens was not without its critics, the project team says, but numerous meetings with neighbors and city officials resulted in a design that complements the world-class botanical garden.