BATON ROUGE — The Burden Museum and Gardens held a ribbon-cutting for its new welcome center off Essen Lane.

The welcome center was funded by private donations and features green infrastructure that collects rainwater from the roof and parking lot, then distributes it to gardens and waterways.

The building also offers sight lines with views of the different landscapes surrounding it.

Jeff Kuehny with the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens spoke about what the new space means for the property.

"And this is really a transformative building for the whole property," Kuehny said. "This is going to be our new front door, where everybody will come and be able to understand all the different things that they can do on this beautiful property that the Burden family left us. So this has been a long time in cutting, coming 15 years in the making, and we're finally here today to celebrate the opening of it."

Next steps for the property include plans to expand gardens around the welcome center and improve walking access.