Tanglewood Conservatories Blog – Alan Stein's Writings about Custom Conservatory Design and More

The Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America in New York will sponsor an exciting private tour of some of the most interesting and architecturally significant residences, Dec. 4th thru the 7th billed as “Private New York”.

“The story of New York City can be told through the architecture and interiors that make
up its ever-evolving fabric. Developmental highs and lows and changing styles are
lasting accounts of this great metropolis.”

The program opens with at the office of Robert A.M. Stern with a reception that will feature a presentation of the sales-record breaking new-old residential apartment building at 15 Central Park West designed by his firm.

Tours will be of the magnificent residences of famous art collectors, music composers, industry titans and high ranking officials. From the Vanderbilts home to Irving Berlin’s apartment to the Union Club, the oldest men’s club in New York, this opportunity is one not to be missed.

In the most recent issue of Custom Home magazine there is a page called “Great Finds- Custom builders share their latest product finds”.

The idea is that the editor interviews various upscale builders about what products the builder and their clients find most outstanding.

This addition of Great Finds, Chip Gruver of Gruver-Cooley Corp. in Leesburg, Virginia mentions his company’s latest great finds. They include:

1. The Harding Steel hydraulic lift which will lower two cars into the basement effectively turning a two car garage into a four car garage.

2. Kohler’s DTV-2 shower system which features music, lighting, water and steam in the bathrooms.

3. Tanglewood Conservatories, whom he mentions they enjoy working with. “People seem to really like them”, Chip says!

That doesn’t surprise us. We work really hard at it!

Alan

This is a picture of Tanglewood shop personnel starting to load steel roof trusses onto a flatbed truck for shipment to a jobsite in Mississippi.

The project is a very interesting swimming pool enclosure; it is entirely made of steel, glass and aluminum on both the exterior and the interior. The steel part going onto the truck will be exposed on the inside of the room. The architect wanted a completely authentic steel and glass conservatory for his client and did not want any woodwork in it at all.

We have recently designed and built several of these steel and glass conservatories as well as a number of other pool enclosures. The challenge is to find ways of detailing the structure so that it doesn’t look like the contemporary aluminum frame pool buildings seen everywhere that are—well, just plain really ugly.

Just as with a wood building, it is the sensitivity to proportion, scale and the details which make the difference between the mundane, thoughtless buildings everywhere around us and the unique, creative and well crafted forms of the talented and thoughtful designer.

The challenge with working with steel is that it is much more difficult to add the details. Working with wood, it is easy to use a shaper or other cutter to make the forms you want however working with steel requires much more creativity and foresight.

Steel also offers a different aesthetic. A steel and glass conservatory can be much lighter feeling. The window sash and door parts are usually much narrower which if properly used, can give the room an elegant, gossamer effect.

We’re anxiously waiting to see how this one comes out when finished. I’ll keep everyone posted with more pictures as it progresses.

Alan

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to spend a day in Hartford, Connecticut and decided to visit the Mark Twain home which has been turned into a wonderful museum.

Aside from my admiration of the humor and wit of this insightful, original American, his home sports a small conservatory which I’ve always wanted to see.

The home is a typical Victorian style red brick mini mansion built in a then fashionable part of town inhabited by avant-garde personalities, writers and activists. Twains neighbor in the Nook Farm neighborhood was Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin), whom he reportedly despised.

Shortly after Twain’s arrival, the city of Hartford was to become one of the wealthiest areas in the country. Twain hired New York architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design the home which was completed in 1874. It was elaborately decorated using brickwork patterns and motifs in the intricate woodwork.

The house was so expensive to construct that by the time Twain and his family were ready to move in, there was no money left to cover the walls with wallpaper. However, by 1881, with the success of his new book “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, the family had the financial recourses to complete the interiors.

He hired Louis C. Tiffany & Co., Associated Artists to handle all the interior decoration. Associated Artists was a one stop shop for the luxury home décor handling painting and stenciling, flooring, custom designed wallpapers, metal work and the specialty glasswork that Tiffany later became so well known for.

Some interesting aspects of the house (aside from the conservatory) are its technologically advanced features. “New technologies were employed which included a gravity flow heat system, split flues to allow for windows over two fireplaces, and seven bathrooms with flush toilets.” In addition, “Twain was both proud of, and flummoxed by, his telephone”, one of the first installed in a private home.

Considered in conjunction with his profoundly new way of writing and his increasingly progressive social and political views, the house is most clearly viewed in its fullest, as a true modern landmark of new American thought.

More on the work and home of this remarkable American can be seen at: www.marktwainhouse.org

Alan

Another great opportunity presented by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America is a lecture on author John F. Harbeson by John Blatteau and Sandra L. Tatman.

The famous Beax-Arts system of architectural education developed and used in France is the subject of Harbeson’s classic book The Study of Architectural Design. “Until the 1940s, when supplanted by the advent of modernism, this method educated and trained every architect in America.”

Blatteau and Tatman wrote an introduction for its new re-print which is now available from W.W. Norton.

The lecture will be held Friday October 17th, at the General Society, 20 West 44th Street in New York at 7:00 pm. A reception and book signing will be held at 6:30.

Tanglewood Conservatories strongly supports the work of the ICA&CA.

Alan

I just found out that the video of the copper-clad conservatory installation that Jim did in Montana was actually just put up on You Tube yesterday. He’s a natural with the camera. You can view it and our other videos on our YouTube Channel.

Alan