| No Other
Room is Quite Like a Conservatory
A Natural Bridge Between House and Garden: 'No Other
Room Is Quite Like A Conservatory,' Says Alan Stein,
Founder of Tanglewood Conservatories
While common in Europe, conservatories
are now beginning to increase in popularity in the
U.S. as homeowners discover a variety of uses for these
one-of-a-kind "glass houses." Many
conservatories, such as the one pictured here, are used
as breakfast rooms or additions to gourmet kitchens,
while others serve specific purposes, such as a music
room or natural bridge between the house and garden.
Conservatories have a rich history, going back to the
days when wealthy families of Victorian Europe would
travel the world and bring back rare spices or lemon
and orange trees. They needed warm climates to survive
the colder months, so the idea of a glass-enclosed conservatory
was developed to nurture the exotic plants and specimens
from the homeowner's world travels. Today you can still
see many European homes graced with these structures.
The interest in conservatories eventually came to the
U.S., where owners of larger houses built them in the
late 1800s and early 1900s. After a decline in popularity,
conservatories began to reappear in the 1960s and show
a revival in the 1970s - around the time insulated glass
became available. By the 1980s some manufacturers needed
to standardize their product to stay in business, turning
to pre-fabricated sunrooms as their main product. Today,
only a handful of firms custom-design and custom-build
conservatories, with more custom conservatories being
built in the U.S. than any other country, largely because
Americans have the money and the climate is conducive.
"I've found that conservatories are to England what
screened porches and decks are here in the U.S.," says
Alan Stein, founder of Tanglewood Conservatories, Ltd.
http://www.tanglewoodconservatories.com , a Denton, Md.-based
custom designer and builder of conservatories. With a
workshop on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Tanglewood 25 craftsmen
custom-build each structure, a process that takes approximately
9 months. Tanglewood creates about 25 conservatories
a year, at an average cost of $150,000 to $250,000 -
some well over a million.
"Our clients initially create their conservatories for
a specific purpose, but it quickly becomes the room in
the house where they spend most of their time, and more
of our clients are incorporating plants and gardens,
sort of a return to the origin of the conservatory," said
Stein. "A conservatory is unlike any other room in the
house - few structures can make so striking a difference
to a home and the people living in it." |
