Dawes Arboretum near Newark is gearing up for a major upgrade, moving ahead with a new two-story welcome center that clocks in at roughly $17 million and adds about 28,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor visitor space. Plans call for an expanded gift shop and plant-sales area, a café with indoor seating, a big boost in restrooms, and new meeting rooms and staff offices. Arboretum leaders say the building will sit west of the current visitor center on the ridge that overlooks the Japanese Garden and meadow, with the existing visitor center slated to be repurposed as a Discovery Center.
The project was spotlighted by Columbus Business First, which reported on the arboretum’s announcement and the timeline for work this year. That initial coverage lines up with the Arboretum’s own materials and the design firm’s project pages that lay out the scope and schedule.
Design and sustainability goals
Columbus-based MA Design is leading the architectural work and describes the Welcome Center as a mass-timber structure set on a masonry base, with generous expanses of glass framing panoramic views of the Japanese Garden and meadow. The firm notes that schematic-design work is underway and that the project is pursuing high sustainability standards, including SITES and LEED certification. MA Design’s portfolio describes the building’s massing and material approach and shows how terraces and porches are intended to connect interior spaces directly to the surrounding landscape.
What visitors will find inside
According to the arboretum’s announcement, the two-story center will increase retail and plant-sales space by about 50 percent, add roughly 4,000 square feet of public-facing viewing areas, and introduce more comfortable indoor seating along with a lounge anchored by a fireplace. The Arboretum’s FAQ also points to expanded restroom capacity, flexible meeting and rental rooms for community use, and additional lower-level staff offices that will free up existing space for education programming. The organization says these features reflect more than a decade of planning and design for a facility meant to support year-round access.
Community context and reaction
Local coverage of recent upgrades at Dawes, from a new electric tram to a high-tech greenhouse, highlights a broader push to improve accessibility and programming across the grounds. Staff and development leaders have cast the welcome center as part of that larger effort. As one staffer put it to The Reporting Project, “We want to kind of create that Starbucks feel so people can plug in and spend the day there with their friends and family.”
Next steps call for breaking ground in early summer 2026, with the Arboretum stating that the nearly $17 million investment is being supported by trustees, staff donations and the institution’s endowment. Once the new Welcome Center opens later in the project timeline, officials say the current visitor center will be renovated and refitted as a Discovery Center to expand education and learning space.
