My Favorite Room
March 30th, 2008My Favorite Room
It Would Be Difficult To Leave
As I mentioned in a separate post from this morning, I have been looking at a selection of real estate properties online. Based upon photos from several of those homes, I now realize that my next home absolutely must have a glass conservatory. The more I think about this, the more I love the idea.
Tanglewood Conservatories in Denton, Maryland, a company known for their incredible creations of nineteenth-century glass architecture, have designed some of the most beautiful conservatories I have ever seen. Tanglewood Conservatories have also recently introduced a new line of Upscale Botanical and Palm Houses (see press release below).
You’ll find a small portfolio of Tanglewood’s design styles and completed construction projects on their website. It’s very easy to see from the photos that all of these structures are magnificent creations. Each of the conservatories and palm houses represented here are breathtakingly beautiful and unique.
I feel only two regrets while browsing their online portfolio…
The first regret is that I am not able to visit each of these in person, because I’m certain the photos don’t do justice to the attention to detail which Tanglewood is famous for. The second regret is that I don’t already have one.
Press Release:
Denton, Md. —Tanglewood Conservatories Inc., already well known for its tantalizingly rich creations of nineteenth-century glass architecture, announces the introduction of its new line of upscale botanical and palm houses. Alan Stein, president and co-founder of Tanglewood remarks that “These structures are clearly intended to be a direct throwback to the exotic steel and glass botanical buildings that became so popular during the late nineteenth-century”.
Targeted at the top end of the market, these custom-designed wood, glass and steel structures can serve as fully functional greenhouses, botanical display houses or exotic sunroom additions for Tanglewood’s discerning clientele.
“I don’t know that these sort of structures have been built anywhere in the world for over a hundred years”, Stein remarked. Originally made possible by technological advances in steel and glass production that came out of the Industrial Revolution, conservatories began to fall out of favor in the twentieth-century due in large part to the tremendous expense of maintaining them.
In recent years however, conservatories, sunrooms and greenhouses have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, particularly as upscale home additions, since such materials as insulated glass have made them much more practical.
However, a typical modern conservatory is mainly a stylized architectural “interpretation” of its antecedents, the degree of direct relation depending upon the skill of the designer and the level of commitment to its authenticity by the manufacturer. In contrast, the new series of Tanglewood’s creations are far closer to the originals than has been possible to find until now.
“We have literally revived building techniques that haven’t been used since the original great glass conservatories were constructed”, says Stein. “For example, a recent project was designed using hundreds of small panes of overlapping glass on its roof to form the curvature of a large dome.” “The shingle-like pieces of glass were each hand cut to fit the intricate framework”.
Other features that are often incorporated into these conservatories include exposed cast iron, decorative steel structural frames and intricately patterned stained glass.
The cost of this innovation is not insignificant. With a typical palm house conservatory ranging from several hundred thousand dollars to well over several million, these monumental glass artifacts are clearly not for everyone.
