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Famous Conservatories From Around The World

13 December 2010

The popularity of conservatories has grown over the years and is partly due to the many famous conservatory structures that are seen around the world today. With Centurion DIY Conservatories you too can emulate these magnificent structures in your own home by designing, and even building them yourself on a very reasonable budget.

To give you an idea of where conservatories have evolved from, from time to time we are going to look at various Conservatory structures from around the world. In this article we are going to have a look at the Conservatory of Flowers, based in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.

This ornate Victorian conservatory was completed in 1878 and is the oldest existing conservatory of its kind in the Western hemisphere. Made of white painted wood and glass, its construction is estimated to have cost around $30,000 (which is about $8million in today's money). The conservatory was originally ordered by a wealthy Real Estate businessman by the name of James Lick to put it on his San Jose Estate. He died before it was ever constructed so was put up for sale by his trustees. It was then bought by a group of wealthy businessmen and gifted to the City of San Francisco for use in Golden Gate Park. It was opened to the public in 1879 becoming the most visited location in the park and has attracted millions of visitors ever since.

The conservatory is made up of two L-shaped wings and with the central pavilion jutting out it makes the conservatory into an overall E-shape. Overlooking Conservatory Valley, it stands 18m high in the central high pavilion, which boosts a gable roof. Below the peak of the central pavilion, dormer windows with peak roofs project on all four sides. It is made up of 16, 800 pains of glass and the total amount of glass used to build it was 26,000 sq ft.

The Conservatory of Flowers survived an earthquake in 1906, with very little damage but has been through several fires and maintenance issues. It is now a museum for rare (and sometimes endangered) tropical plants and houses over 1,700 different species from all over the world.