Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens

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Main entrance to Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens.

Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a complex of buildings and grounds set in Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States (near the Carnegie Museums in Oakland).

The gardens were founded in 1893 by steel and real-estate magnate Henry Phipps as a gift to the City of Pittsburgh. Its purpose is to educate and entertain the people of Pittsburgh with formal gardens (Roman, English, etc.) and various species of exotic plants (palm trees, succulents, bonsai, orchids, etc.). Currently the facilities house elaborate gardens within the thirteen room conservatory itself and on the adjoining grounds. In addition to lovely flora, the sophisticated glass and metalwork of the Lord & Burnham conservatory offers a wonderful example of Victorian greenhouse architecture.

The Phipps Conservatory has silver-level LEED certification.

1 Gardens
2 Expansion
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Gardens

Indoor rooms		Outdoor gardens
Palm Court Serpetine Room Fern Room Orchid Room Stove Room South Conservatory Tropical Fruit and Spice Room The Gallery Sunken Garden Desert Room Victoria Room Parterre de Boderie Room East Room	A swan display in the Sunken Garden during the 2005 Winter Flower Show.	Discovery Garden Japanese Courtyard Garden Aquatic Garden Outdoor Garden Medicinal Plant Garden Botany Hall Garden

[edit] Expansion

In October of 2003 Phipps announced an ambitious expansion project. The first phase of which, a green engineered Welcome Center topped by a neo-Victorian dome, was designed by IKM Incorporated, and completed in 2005. The Production Greenhouses and a Tropical Forest Conservatory were completed in 2006.

The Tropical Forest conservatory will have a different theme every year, beginning with the country of Thailand. In addition to a "Research Forest Station" and a "Healer's Hut" (designed to educate visitors about various cultural topics), there are two waterfalls, several bridges, a stream and a wide variety of plants, from Bamboo, Orchids and Frangipani to plants of economic, cultural and horticultural value to the people of Thailand. The new Tropical Forest Conservatory has several interesting features, which make it extremely energy-efficient (for a glass house.) It has "earth tubes" running underground to help cool the tropical forest, and a Soild Oxide fuel cell, which powers this newly constructed part of the building.

In 2007, Phipps teamed with glass artist Dale Chihuly and his Seattle-based team of glass blowers. They worked together to create a lovely and creative marriage of hand-blown glass and living plants.