On Wednesday, March 12th, The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America will present their seventh annual McKim Lecture in New York City.

The theme of this years lecture will be New York’s Pennsylvania Stations and will include a review of current developments over the future of a new Pennsylvania Station in the General Post Office building nearby.

Dr. Hillary Ballon, distinguished historian, scholar and author will present the lecture. She has been called “one of the most important architectural historians in America today”.

“Her scholarship has focused on cities and the intersection of architecture, political and social life in Twentieth century America and seventeenth century Europe”.

The wonderful steel and glass “conservatory-like” Pennsylvania station is an inspiration to all of us interested in the great classical designs of the past.

The Institute of Classical Architecture can be contacted at 212 730 9646.

This is a circular window we recently fabricated for a home in California. It is made from mahogany on the inside and completely clad with copper on the outside. We even made the four keystone trim parts out of copper. It is one of a growing number of commissions we accept for windows, domes or other items that do not include conservatories.

Over the last few years, a growing portion of our work has included copper or lead-coated copper work. If you look at our website page showcasing Domes, Lanterns & Skylights (coming soon), you’ll be able to see some other examples of our copper work.

A recent customer asked us to design and build an entire conservatory clad with copper. It was to be a beautiful orangery with stained mahogany on the inside and copper exterior. Their purpose was to have a completely maintenance free conservatory on their vacation home which is in a remote part of Montana.

Our team was able to design and fabricate the windows, roof system and all the intricate exterior trim parts in copper.

While most of our work with copper has been limited to conservatories, we have now expanded our capability and accept jobs that are include the copper-clad windows only.

Having just finished a very interesting project in North Carolina, I received this note from Bob Wilkoff, the architect with whom we had worked. Bob is an exceptionally talented artist who generally restricts his work to the greater Washington DC area. We’ve completed numerous conservatory projects with him over the years – including one on his own house. He also designed the façade of the Tanglewood building in Denton which you can see a small portion of in the group photo on the Tanglewood Story page of our website.

Dear Family & Friends,
Just a heads up that I’ve been chosen to participate in this month’s, (March), Washingtonian Magazine article on Washington’s top architects. Take a look at the article beginning on page 125.

Best wishes,
Bob

The customer for the conservatory project in North Carolina originally contacted Tanglewood about their project and asked us for a reference for an architect. They were planning a substantial renovation to the entire house that included as one element a large conservatory.

Though as architects ourselves, we sometimes take on additional design responsibilities as smaller adjuncts to a larger custom conservatory. But in this case the scope of the overall project required an additional professional.

Bob seemed to be the natural choice. The opportunity to use a conservatory manufacturer and architect who are already familiar with each others work, process and limitations is always a REALLY big plus on a job.

This case was no exception. Together with the clients, we worked seamlessly, providing input for the entire project. As a result, the overall quality of the design – and construction as well, became far and away better than anything that could have been done by either on our own.

I’ll soon be able to post some pictures of this job so that you can see the integration of the conservatory portion of the project with Bob’s scheme of the overall renovation.

We are very happy to be associated with such high level professionals! Nice work Bob. You can see some of his work at his website www.archaeon.com.

I noticed an interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor yesterday. Its title “BOTANICAL CONSERVATORIES TAKE ON URGENT NEW ROLE” sounded intriguing.

The article speaks about the importance that conservatories are coming to have in the preservation of species facing the effects of climate change.

Jane Roy Brown, the writer notes that “conservatories, once the glass-walled playgrounds of wealthy plant collectors, now serve a more urgent function”. She says “the changing global climate has spotlighted the role these specialized greenhouses play in preserving plant diversity”.

She makes the analogy that the conservatory is to plants what a zoo is to animals and points out that “climate-controlled conservatories may well be the only places some plants can survive” and that they “allow scientists to educate the public, including gardeners, about the environmental threats to many species”.

Clearly, as the effects of changes to our global ecosystem become felt, the conservatory will become an important tool for scientists.

“Kayri Havens, director of plant science and conservation at the Chicago Botanic Garden, says that scientists began viewing species conservation as a primary function of conservatories only about 50 years ago.”

Read the article if you get a chance. It throws a new light on the conservatory and its history. Remember that the conservatories were first developed to do exactly that – conserve delicate plants that could not survive outside. These were usually specimens brought from far off tropical locations for the purpose of research and display. Not unlike the new role they might play.

I just got word of an article on conservatories to be published in the upcoming issue of Upscale Living Magazine. This would be their Spring ’08 issue which should be out shortly in March. Though this great magazine is available only by subscription, you can visit their website www.upscalelivingmag.com for a peek into the exclusive world they portray. Who knows, maybe you’ll want to subscribe!

Several other publications will also showcase some our work this spring. I’ll have more details to come.

Coming soon to the Tanglewood Conservatories website – a completely redesigned portfolio section featuring many new images in our Conservatory Gallery, a section on our new Palm Houses and Greenhouses, which have become very popular and for the first time, an exclusive page called Domes, Lanterns and Skylights which showcases the work that we do with these specialized items.

Please be sure to check back in a couple of weeks to see these great new examples of conservatory design and artisan craftsmanship.

We will be expanding our conservatory website significantly over the next few months. Thanks for your interest.

This is a picture of the conservatory that I talked about in my last posting. It was built several years ago in the upper northeast part of the country and as you can see, it is regularly subjected to extreme weather conditions including getting lots of snow and ice dumped on it.

Because of the way the conservatory roof is designed, it is a perfect candidate for the condition known as “ice damming” (discussed in my last blog post). However, because of our expertise with the design and construction of conservatories in northern climates, the room has stayed perfectly dry and completely free of any problems.

Here’s a note that accompanied the picture from the VERY satisfied homeowners:

“Alan, Thought you’d like to see this. We are very pleased. Please feel free to use us as a reference any time.” Dick and Max