Construction Milestones

It was a long and rewarding process, capped by a finial.

Soon after the Friends organized, neighbor Roger Pacheco told us he had been given the old finial for safe keeping some twenty years ago when the Conservatory underwent a much smaller set of stabilization repairs.  He had been using it as a doorstop in his garage.  We were able to have the old finial replicated in new wood and covered in copper.  A brave man scaled the exterior and gently set the new finial in place in October 2009.

We are grateful to Andrew Maloney, project architect, for his care in preserving (and recovering) the architectural gems of the Conservatory building: daylighting the original skylights that had been covered over, highlighting the original bentwood trusses, sourcing salvaged old-growth redwood to trim out the interior and then staining it in a clear varnish to feature its beauty, designing a floor that echoed the old interior planting beds of the Conservatory, and working with the Friends to find the right exterior palette to do the Conservatory proud. We are also grateful to him for his expert and graceful handling of all of the structural and mechanical elements, including the ample heating system, the operable windows, and ability to carve an elegant bathroom and small kitchen prep area out of the old porte-cochere.