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

Another new project involves an interesting design for a second floor conservatory addition to the home of some of our best friends, Molly and Michael.

You might have noticed the frequent mention of Molly and Michael on our website, because in addition to owning one of our favorite Tanglewood conservatories, they are about to embark on an unprecedented FIFTH project with us!

First there was a beautiful lantern over their entry foyer which though initially proposed as a solution to a leak in their roof, became a focal point in the front of their home allowing the sunlight pouring through stained glass windows to light up the wide curved staircase below. This project was accomplished quickly while planning the main addition, the jewel box spa conservatory out in the garden.

That custom conservatory was a unique collaboration with them and the spa enclosure room that resulted, one of our most loved conservatories, was chronicled in the conseratory video about their project.

Molly and Michael were so smitten with Tanglewood’s work by then that during a major renovation to their kitchen, they asked us to turn what was then an odd left over space leading out to a back patio, into a mahogany paneled sitting room with two story mahogany and stained glass windows looking out the their rhododendron gardens.

I admit that I was a bit skeptical that the resulting space which was only ten feet wide, would actually feel like a real room when we finished, but Molly’s vision was right on and the new cozy paneled space, furnished with red leather wingchairs became a perfect parlor, a custom mini conservatory.

Next came a large elaborate gothic window, also mahogany with stained glass, in their upstairs bedroom.

The newest project will be a domed-roof custom conservatory situated off their second floor master bedroom. It will replace an aging and poorly built sunroom that has been an eyesore for years. The room that is adjacent to the new conservatory will get the same mahogany paneling as before and the windows in the new conservatory will feature elaborate mahogany and stained glass patterns as well.

Coupled with the new conservatory room upstairs will be a rather unique bay window in the existing kitchen. It will have a rolled copper roof and base along with mahogany and stained glass windows to match the rest of the work.

Both these new additions are fun projects as their unusual designs will make a huge impact on the appearance and functionality of their home.

I’ll post pictures of these unique conservatories as we progress.

Alan

Yesterday, Nancy and I visited with some friends who are planning a conservatory addition to their suburban home. We met with them and the general contractor they had selected to work on the project which includes the custom conservatory, a swimming pool enclosure for an endless pool located below the new conservatory and an exercise room adjacent to the indoor swimming pool enclosure.

When we arrived, they were struggling with a thorny planning issue involving the floor heights of the new rooms below the conservatory.

Since the existing home has several steps going down into the living room which is the room the new conservatory will be attached to, to achieve adequate head height in the swimming pool enclosure below, the floor level would end up being below the level of a small but charming outdoor patio they loved.

No one liked the idea of having to step up from floor of the pool enclosure and exercise rooms to get outside to the patio. This would create a potential problem with water tending to run into the new rooms so a number of elaborate schemes were being discussed to alleviate the problem when Nancy and I arrived.

Of importance to our friends was that the floor levels of the new lower rooms, the swimming pool enclosure and the exercise room be on the same level with the outside patio so that the spaces flowed smoothly one into the other. The concept was that all three spaces would feel as if they were extensions of each other.

We joined the discussion, looked at the outside of the house where the patio was and thought, maybe a simple solution would be to just lower the patio a bit. After all, it was not a large patio and some of the brickwork looked like it might need repair anyway. With lots of other construction and excavation going on right next to it, it might need to get rebuilt anyway.

After some discussion, we all agreed that was the best solution as it would preserve the simplicity of the design concept of the three spaces.

Now, on to the conservatory part of the project.

Alan

We recently received an email from Ken Tate, the project architect for the large renovation project that incorporated a Tanglewood Conservatories steel and glass pool pavilion. Ken is a pretty high level architect and has been named as one of the top 100 architects by Architectural Digest magazine. It was for the project that was featured in Architectural Digest magazine in June and included a full page interior picture of the custom pool house we designed and built.

Ken wanted us to have a testimonial from him and wrote:

“My experiences with Tanglewood Conservatories have been exceptional ones…from the early design and coordination phase, to the shop drawing and construction phases. Tanglewood is a couture conservatory company, meaning that every detail is custom designed and all shop construction is overseen personally by the owner Alan Stein himself! And Alan, being an architect, is always refining the smallest details. My first project with Tanglewood was featured in “Architectural Digest “ (July 2010 page 89) as part of a feature article on the house that the conservatory was attached to. So, the “proof-is-in-the-pudding”.

Ken Tate Architect

Aside from just being a great recommendation and making us feel really good, Ken points to one of the defining features of Tanglewood Conservatories. While many conservatory builders refer to themselves as “custom” or “bespoke”, what they are mainly commenting on is their ability to mix and match their standard parts to make different looking conservatories.

What we did for Ken was to conceive an entirely new way to build a conservatory, using entirely new materials – steel and glass instead of wood, based on his desire to have an “old world” steel and glass conservatory.

The fact that Tanglewood Conservatories is willing and able to explore with architects and clients how best to achieve their vision without limitation– no matter where it leads, is what makes the company’s approach completely unique.

Yes, other conservatory builders make conservatories that look like some of ours and we make some that look like theirs, but Tanglewood is pretty unique when it comes to our ability to listen to our clients, both their expressed desires as well as the not as obvious ones and to build rooms that capture the essence of their dream in great ways they had not even thought of.

Alan