The Botanical Building at Balboa Park and a book review: The Conservatory, Gardens Under Glass

Our next stop at Balboa Park was The Botanical Building, aka the Lath House. This structure was originally built for the 1915-16 Exposition and is one of the largest lath houses in the world.  

The building just reopened (on December 6th), after being closed to the public for three years while Phase 1 of a $28.5 million revitalization project was completed. Included in the renovation was the restoration of stucco arches, a new redwood lath roof, improved irrigation systems and lighting, and access for people with disabilities (more info here).

The stunning view looking out from the front of the lath house...

And the view inside...

The structure is amazing.

Absolutely gorgeous.

The plants? Not so much. I mean they're fine, right up there with a nice mall. But interesting and inspiring? A good fit with their location? Not even close.

How absolutely disappointing.

I remember feeling awe when I walked thru back in 2014 (photos here).

This time, no. No awe. It looks like an underfunded bedding out scheme.

This corner was the most interesting. 

That stump was cool!

And there were pyrrosia, P. lingua 'Crested', but not even a few pyrrosia were enough to cheer me up.

The next phase of the renovation is supposed to involve the plantings around the outside of the building. Let's hope they do better there.

Moving on to a quick book review (so this post isn't completely disheartening) let's talk about The Conservatory, Gardens Under Glass, by Alan Stein and Nancy Virts, from Princeton Architectural Press (2020). It seems fitting since the Botanical Building is mentioned in the book, even though there's no glass.

I first learned of this book when Camille (aka tahomaflora) mentioned receiving it as a Christmas gift. I immediately looked it up, but since the price was rather steep for an impulse buy (over $50/$40 used) I decided to get it from my local library. Nope. It seems Portland’s lack of interest in conservatories runs even to the library system! (Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco all have conservatories, but not Portland). I was finally able to track it down via an Interlibrary loan, the book came to me from the Coos Bay Public Library.

Book photo spread: the Botanic Gardens Belfast Conservatory

Here's a tidbit from Chapter Five: New World Conservatories. They're writing about the late nineteenth century in the Unites States and Canada…

"The perception of North America as a backwater even extended to the continent’s flora and fauna: America’s native species were considered inferior to Europe’s. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) railed against the belief of French scientists that flora and fauna inevitably degenerated when transplanted to America. A famous eighteenth-century naturalist and the head of the Jardin des Plants in Paris, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Come de Buffon (1707-1788), wrote that in America, all things “shrink and diminish under a blackened sky and unprolific land.” In response, Jefferson dispatched twenty soldiers to New Hampshire to find a bull moose as proof of the “stature and majesty of American quadrupeds.” Buffon later penned a retraction, but the state of botany as a science in the colonies and early republic was also disparaged. Victoria Johnson, the author of American Eden (2018), relates that a French botanist, in Manhattan on a mission from Louis XVI, wrote home, “There are no informed people here, not even amateurs.”

Writing about Henry Phipps Jr. (1839-1930), the man behind Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the authors note that he. “…was genuinely concerned about the well-being of the working class and thought a public conservatory would benefit the city.” Of course that’s after they noted that the industry that fueled his fortune (steel) also “created a thick blanket of smog, that damaged the health of the workers.” Once completed the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens was donated to the city of Pittsburgh “on the condition that it be open on Sundays so that laborers could go there on their rest day.” Hmmm. Making my fortune I damaged the natural world, but now I am giving back. 

Phipps Conservatory is definitely one I would like to visit, someday. The Scripps Conservatory in Detroit also looks like a great place to see...

Book photo spread: the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory at Belle Isle Park in Detroit, Michigan

I count myself rather lucky to have visited several of the buildings on their list of New World Conservatories...

I've been to the Conservatory of Flowers, The New York Botanical Garden, The Fernery at Morris Arboretum, Volunteer Park Conservatory, Longwood Gardens, The Balboa Botanical Building, United States Botanic Garden, and Allan Gardens Conservatory.

I thought this was an interesting tidbit in the section on the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle: "From the beginning, according to the conservancy’s website, “the Conservatory’s mission was to educate, collect, and conserve threatened plants and to transport visitors beyond the open green spaces of the Park to another world that examines connected environments and plant species from around the globe.” Thus, the conservatory is no longer only a place to study botany, or explore the economic potential of plants, or even find a green respite for urban populations. It now has a conservation mission."

I've also had the privilege to visit some of the Modern Glasshouse Marvels...

I've seen the Jardin des Plants, Princess of Wales Conservatory, Parc André Citroën, The Davies Alpine House and of course the Amazon Spheres. Not on either of those lists are the conservatories at Kew (which I've also been lucky enough to visit), and that's because they are the subject of much discussion earlier in the book.

Here's where I admit that I didn't read every word in this magnificent book, it had far too many details (painstakingly researched I'm sure) on the early days. I skimmed, I read the interesting bits, I soaked up all the lovely photos. I then returned it and felt lucky to have been able to put in a request and have the library system track down and deliver (to my nearest library) the book. Let's hope this benefit doesn't disappear under the current administration, along with so many others.   

Book photo spread: The Schönbrunn Palace Park Conservatory, Vienna, Austria

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All material © 2009-2025 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.