continued cool new conservatory projects
Continued…
Not long ago while working with a client on another very unusual greenhouse project (which I will get to later), the client asked Nancy and I if we had ever built one like it before that he could go see. His project was for a large greenhouse near Boston that utilized the look and glazing techniques of the historic Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
He wanted to make sure – that as he put it, he wasn’t going to be the “guinea pig” for our latest new “great” idea – that the system we were proposing would actually work.
My answer was only that doing the unusual, even if it means inventing entire new systems is something which we do all the time at Tanglewood, and in this sense, we had done what we were doing for him many, many times before – even if we had never designed and built a conservatory anything like the one we had designed for him. Totally unique, which of course was what he really wanted, he just had to feel comfortable with the idea, which he then did – sort of!
Later on, as his project progressed, he and his builder made several trips to Tanglewood to see his conservatory being “born”. It was great for us to watch his entire attitude change as he began to see with his own eyes and then understand what goes into each of our projects and how his was such a perfect fit for him even in ways he never understood before. (I’ll get some pictures of this amazing conservatory project up as soon as I can).
Right now for example, we are designing and building two unique projects at Tanglewood. One is a small conservatory for customer in Montana that is completely clad with copper on the exterior and is beautiful stained mahogany on the inside. The roof, the casement windows, the doors and even all the exterior ornamentation (pilasters with Corinthian capitals) are being made out of copper, a Tanglewood first.
The other conservatory is an ornamental “old world” pool enclosure for a job in Mississippi that is completely constructed out of steel and aluminum. Steel windows, steel doors, decorative steel roof members and ornamental aluminum trim inside and out, another Tanglewood first. (Photos of these will be coming soon also.)
Mehmet, my counterpart in the design process, as well as many others here at Tanglewood constantly resist attempts to rehash old design ideas, even if for economy sake, some reuse is called for.
My goal is not to engage in this very difficult design and building approach just for the sake of being different, but be able to bring a very high level of creativity, inventiveness and sensitivity to bear on each project that Tanglewood designs and builds, whether large or small, expensive or not. In that way, the end result will be a completely unique yet logical and appropriate response to each of our clients individual needs.
When people look at one of our finished conservatory projects, they usually see the wood, glass and steel building that has appeared, but it is only the final result of our efforts. What is more difficult to portray is the creative process that has lead to that result and how appropriate a response it is for that particular client.
More on all this later…