Your Tanglewood conservatory will be made just for you. Built in our shop
near the Chesapeake Bay from scratch, in all the world, it will be unique.
T
he architect for this newly constructed home had already
designed a conservatory for their client who wanted a room
that she could use not only as a display greenhouse but also a
quiet getaway from the bustle of her family.
When we met with them, she expressed an interest in an old
world "industrial" aesthetic that seemed impossible to find
from a typical "conservatory" company.
Together, we poured over books of old buildings and historic
greenhouses until we felt that we understood the direction to
take in the design of the new room. We produced sketches of
several of the ideas along a concept to build the main structure
out of steel plates welded together then "skinned" with a
lightweight wood window wall system and topped with a glass
roof - much in the same way a great conservatory might have
been built over a hundred years ago.
This recently constructed
Palm House was inspired by
the great conservatories and
greenhouses of yesteryear.
Designed to house twenty-
foot tall trees, the decora-
tively forged steel structure
and curving rooflines hearken
back to that imaginative era.
That way, the large greenhouse would not seem too "heavy"
for the "glass room" feeling we sought to achieve. The steel
structural system was relieved with cutouts that serve as both
decoration and to lighten the framework and the wood
window walls were "hung" away from the structure on specially
designed brackets letting the steel ribs stand free and express
their function.
Look closely and
you'll see the playful use of the circular
and cloverleaf motifs in the stained glass,
on the steel beams and in the architectural details.
The woodwork on the interior and exterior is a dark
stained mahogany, the gutters and downspouts
copper and the roof parts painted so as to disappear
into the large expanse of glass. The four leaf clover
design that was incorporated into the stained glass
and repeated in the steel beams was specifically
requested by the client to remind her of her native
Ireland.
