Morton La Kretz donates $5M to Botany Building for renovations
UCLA alumnus Morton La Kretz donated $5 million for renovations and new laboratories in the Botanical Building. (Amy Dixon/Assistant Photo editor)
By Emi Nakahara
Sept. 26, 2017 3:58 p.m.
A UCLA alumnus donated $5 million to support the renovation of the UCLA Botany Building to enhance research in plant, conservation and environmental biology.
The gift, from Morton La Kretz, a philanthropist and real estate developer, will renovate the building’s entrances and construct a botanical teaching laboratory on the first floor and conservation research laboratories on the third floor. Funds left over will be used to pay for future construction projects in the building.
The ecology and evolutionary biology departments’ classrooms and offices are located in the Botany Building.
The Botany Building is located next to the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. A $5 million gift to the garden from La Kretz in 2014 has also funded renovations and the construction of the La Kretz Garden Pavilion.
[Related: Donation to UCLA botanical garden increases access with new pavilion]
La Kretz’s gift is part of the UCLA Centennial Campaign, which aims to raise $4.2 billion in donations to fund student and faculty support, research and capital projects by December 2019.
