Source:
Carolina Revilla-Vendrame, (786) 205-004
Homestead, Fla. — Construction of a 6,000-square-foot teaching greenhouse-headhouse at the University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead will begin with a groundbreaking ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Oct. 25.
This $250,000 teaching greenhouse will help UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences provide instruction to a growing number of students working toward baccalaureate degrees in environmental horticulture in the southern-most site in UF/IFAS. Educational programs are open to both degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking students.
The greenhouse, scheduled for completion in March 2003, will enhance the ability of the Tropical Research and Education Center to continue its more than 70-year tradition of serving the Miami-Dade agricultural community with research, extension and teaching programs.
“We are most grateful to the Florida Nurserymen Growers Association’s Miami-Dade Chapter,” said Van H. Waddill, director for the research center. “Thanks to the FNGA’s belief in the Tropical Research and Education Center, they raised $100,000 for the construction of the teaching greenhouse.”
Michael Martin, UF’s vice president for agriculture and natural resources, will deliver remarks at the groundbreaking ceremony. Martin says the efforts of the Florida Nurserymen Growers Association’s Miami-Dade Chapter to improve the Tropical Research and Education Center’s infrastructure will bring profitability to the agricultural community in the area.
The teaching greenhouse will complement the new 1,500-square-foot academic building, which contains two classrooms that can accommodate 50 students and will be equipped for multimedia presentations and videoconferences.
The UF/IFAS Tropical Research and Education, located in Homestead, Fla., about 30 miles south of Miami, was established in 1929 by an act of the state legislature in what is now Miami-Dade County on land donated by the Krome family and Mr. Charles E. Schaff.
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