Osborne awarded RHS Garden Wisley Flagship Project

Osborne has been awarded a multi-million pound project by the Royal Horticultural Society to build a National Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey.

The National Centre for Horticultural Science and Learning is the flagship project of the RHS’s major investment at their principal gardens in Wisley, Surrey.

Once completed, it will provide world-class research and educational facilities for horticultural science and act as a legacy to support the RHS’s ambition to ‘Make Science Visible’.

The two storey building will house important specimens, laboratory space, library/archive, conference and learning experience spaces, and provide facilities for public engagement with exhibitions and café space.

Osborne has delivered similar projects in the past, including the Library at the Royal Holloway University, where many of the design features were similar to the requirements of the RHS for this flagship project.

Andrew Jasper, Programme Director, RHS, said: “We are pleased to announce the appointment of Osborne as our main contractors on this exciting project. This new Centre will allow us to inspire the next generation of horticulturists and open up our previously unseen scientific work to our members, visitors, and the wider public.”

Andy Steele, CEO at Osborne, said: “Osborne has a track record and ethos of working collaboratively with customers to deeply understand their needs, challenges and timescales. We are excited to be part of this flagship project at Wisley, where we can make a difference to people’s lives and leave behind an important legacy.”

The enabling works began in April and is due for completion in 2020.