"These people's kin built wood ships
and oystering boats - skipjacks - for use on
the Chesapeake Bay for over a hundred years! "In
a sense then, the team was waiting for Tanglewood
Conservatories to arrive. But how did Stein
and Tanglewood find their way here? Before
Tanglewood's debut, elegant custom conservatories
- designed and built in America for the American
climate - did not exist. "That's why we
started building them", says Stein. Early
on, Tanglewood simply warehoused material manufactured
by other companies. "We assembled their
parts into sun rooms of fairly straightforward
design."
"As
our creativity and experience in glass architecture
grew, our conservatory design projects
generated more interest."
We
needed a new kind of environment, and people
with new skills, to keep growing." Bursting
at the seams by 1996, Tanglewood Conservatories
moved to its new location in Denton, adding
the space and talent that enabled it to firmly
establish this new tradition in America. The
fit and finish of a Tanglewood conservatory
has more in common with fine furniture than
carpentry. Usually constructed of solid mahogany,
these are intricate, complex, highly detailed
structures. "Every conservatory design
is different. It's really a challenge!" I
realize now that working for Tanglewood gives
these men and women the opportunity to bring
unique and challenging creations to life.
