ANTIQUE - STYLE GREENHOUSE

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 decoratively forged steel structure and curving rooflines hearken back to that imaginative era.

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.