Sarah P. Duke Gardens opens its renovated Anderson Street entrance Wednesday, April 8, ending more than a year of construction on the $30 million Garden Gateway project. Weekday parking, closed since early 2025, resumes the same day.
The centerpiece is the Barnes Welcome Center, named for a $7 million gift from the Durham-based Barnes Family Foundation. It serves as the new main entrance, replacing an asphalt stretch and a single multipurpose building that showed strain as attendance climbed. Spokesperson Lauren Smith Hong said the facility was built in 2000 for about 150,000 visitors a year. Duke Gardens drew 620,000 in 2024.
- A new cafe opens Wednesday with hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. The gardens themselves remain free and open 8 a.m. to sunset every day.
- The Barnes Welcome Center includes a visitor lobby, gallery space, and classrooms alongside the cafe.
- The project converted a parking lot into a 2,000-capacity event lawn and courtyard. The redesigned Doris Duke Center adds a larger indoor event space, an expanded catering kitchen, and an outdoor patio.
The cherry trees on the garden's main alley have already finished blooming, but thousands of other flowers remain on the property.