Global Flora Conservatory, Massachusetts Real Estate, Martha’s Vineyard Architecture Design Images
Global Flora Conservatory at Wellesley College
Jul 11, 2021
Design: Kennedy & Violich Architecture
Location: Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA

Global Flora Conservatory
The Global Flora Conservatory, an internationally renowned botanical collection at Wellesley College, has been selected as the 2021 Architizer A+ Awards Jury Winner for Architecture + New Technology. The project was designed by the American architecture firm of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA Matx) in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team at Wellesley College led by Kristina Jones, Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic Gardens, and Cathy Summa, a Professor of Geoscience and Director of the Wellesley College Science Center.
The Global Flora project reimagines the ?stand-alone? typology of the greenhouse as an interlinked and synergistic set of Wet and Dry biomes that are heated and cooled using renewable resources. The design integrates a curved building form that follows the east-west sun path and engages the hillside topography of the Wellesley Campus.

The iconic Durant Camellia tree, over 140 years old, is exhibited in a transparent pavilion linked with the new facility. The new Global Flora is one of the first public conservatories in North America that is clad with a transparent ETFE building skin that enables the direct visual comparison and study of plant form ...