Custom Shading Systems Help Create a Unique Botanical Conservatory Experience.
Even a garden filled with plants from hot climates can get overheated in a traditional glass house. Custom Draper shades are an integral part of this modern interpretation of the classic glass house at Pennsylvania’s Longwood Gardens.
An Historical Perspective
“Planting a garden of any sort symbolizes hope. Hope in tomorrow. Hope that something beautiful is about to happen.”
Although that quote is often misattributed to the businessman Pierre du Pont, it accurately reflects the gardening philosophy which inspired and informed his development of Longwood Gardens in the early twentieth century.
So when the present-day stewards and the architecture team of WEISS/MANFREDI decided to reimagine the 1100 acre horticultural showcase located in southeastern Pennsylvania, they wanted to remain true to that vision.
A Classic Garden Feature Reimagined
The centerpiece of Longwood Reimagined is the new 32,000-square-foot West Conservatory, which is home to a Mediterranean garden featuring plants from not only the Mediterranean, but also South Africa, Chile, Australia, and coastal California.
But even tropical plants can get too hot. To keep that from happening, operable glass panels and custom shading were part of the solution. The steel and glass structure’s asymmetrical roof peaks and arching beams and columns, which give the impression of the rolling hills and trees of its Brandywine Valley home, made this a tough task.
“What makes the West Conservatory so unique is the amount of customization that was required to go into it. It’s a very unique solution that we needed to provide that’s going to balance both the light and the heat gain for these plants to be able to continue to thrive in this environment,” said Corey Smith, Commercial Sales Account Representative — Mid-Atlantic U.S. for Draper, Inc. “Each window has seven unique angles. There are 295 shades that are unique and each one is operating in sync as well as individually.”
A Domestic Partnership Creates Success
“For the custom engineering components, for fabrication, for lead time delivery and shipping — it really proved beneficial in this project to be located in the U.S.,” said Smith. “I don’t know of many other manufacturers that would be able to take on a project like this.”
Draper worked closely with Goodwin Brothers Shades and Specialties throughout the project to make sure the shading solution was a proper fit for the job.
“The complexity of this project is really what stands out. To be able to install shades in this type of environment — and to get them to work correctly — that was the hard part about this,” said Matt Sanderoff, Director of Operations, Goodwin Brothers. “There’s not an off-the-shelf solution for this. Any shade to work and roll correctly needs to be plum level working in coordination with the rollers. So every bracket, shade, cover is custom. We are not typically in this type of outdoor arena with open humidity, open elements, water, plants.”
In addition to the West Conservatory, Draper also provided FlexShade Motorized Shades with IntelliFlex I/O DC Controls for other buildings onsite, including the library and the Longwood Fountain Room.
To learn more about the complete Longwood project, click here for a documentary about the effort.
This article is available as a free PDF download from the Draper Request Site. (This action opens a PDF file.)
You can also watch a short video about our involvement with Longwood here.
Draper, Inc. Custom Shading Solutions: https://www.draperinc.com/solarcontrolsolutions/
Goodwin Brothers: https://gbshades.com/
