The 79-year-old Lord and Burnham Liberty Hyde Bailey Conservatory at Cornell is crumbling. Excellent article on it’s fate in the Cornell Chronicle.
Built by greenhouse architects Lord & Burnham Co. in 1931 for Liberty Hyde Bailey, the first dean of the College of Agriculture and a prominent palm taxonomist, the facility has deteriorated, with internal and external falling panes of glass, rotting wooden glazing bars and peeling asbestos-laden glazing putty. The college decided, based on advice from the Department of Risk Management and Environmental Health and Safety, to close the Conservatory Greenhouse until a long-term solution can be found.
Restoration costs have proved prohibitive. But “There will be a conservatory in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences,” says Senior Associate Dean Jan Nyrop, who will lead a discussion of the teaching functions of Cornell’s greenhouses Nov. 17 at 4:30 p.m. in 404 Plant Science Building.
