When constructed correctly, maintained appropriately, and with a cheap glass or plastic roof replaced with a more solid design, conservatories are a joy to behold, successfully providing a link between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Whilst they have existed for centuries, it was the Crystal Palace in London that turned a fascination with glass and steel into a revolution that still affects how we design and build conservatories to this very day.
Everything from the smallest sunroom to the Conservatory at The Barbican was in some way influenced by Joseph Paxton’s revolutionary building, including another huge glasshouse bearing its name.
This building itself, New York’s Crystal Palace, would be inspirational and influential, but it also served as a cautionary tale that went unheeded.
Why Was New York’s Crystal Palace Conservatory Constructed?
Following the success of The Great Exhibition in London in 1851, other countries were keen to host their own World’s Fair, a showcase of the best the world had to offer in the 19th century.
New York would become the host in 1853, for which Georg Carstensen and Karl Gildemeister were tasked with designing a Crystal Palace fit for New York City.
The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was mostly noteworthy for housing a demonstration of Elisha Otis’ safety lift, an innovation that changed how buildings were constructed and could only be showcased properly in a building as large and open as the Crystal Palace.
How Did New York’s Crystal Palace Inspire Later Conservatories?
Unlike the original Crystal Palace, which was designed as a grand rectangular hall out of practical necessity, New York’s Crystal Palace was inspired by classical architecture and was, at the time, the largest building in New York City.
Its main cross-section was a Greek cross with a central dome, showcasing that far more was possible with the main ingredients of glass and steel than had been seen with Mr Paxton’s version, whilst still retaining the use of modular, standardised parts.
One particularly forward-thinking solution was to paint certain glass panels on the roof with enamel to make the building’s interior less hot, something that has been rediscovered in recent years with the use of UV-resistant glass layers and solid roofs.
Unlike the Crystal Palace, and much more like newer traditional-style conservatories, New York’s Crystal Palace was made not only from steel and glass but also wood, which, whilst making the building more beautiful, also made it more vulnerable to its eventual fate.
What Happened To New York’s Crystal Palace?
Whilst the Crystal Palace was a beloved highlight for visitors, New York’s World’s Fair was nowhere near as successful as London’s Great Exhibition.
Unlike the six million attendees of the Great Exhibition, just 1.1 million saw the Fair before it was closed in November 1854, barely over a fifth of the attendance.
Part of the problem was a delay in its opening, which caused the Fair to lose $100,000 in its first year alone. When P. T. Barnum of the Barnum & Bailey Circus was brought in to try to stem the tide, the losses tripled.
Unlike London’s Crystal Palace, which was moved and modified but still saw use for at least half a century, New York’s Crystal Palace was largely abandoned by 1856. Two years later, it would cease to exist.
The Destruction Of Crystal Palace
Constructed next to Crystal Palace was New York’s first skyscraper, Latting Observatory.
The inspiration for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the wooden observation tower was the tallest building in New York at the time, at 96m, and was a key World’s Fair attraction until it closed in 1854
On 30th August 1856, the tower burned down, damaging 12 nearby buildings and nearly taking The Crystal Palace with it.
Two years later, on 5th October 1858, during the last ever event the building would host, New York Crystal Palace burned down in dramatic and rapid fashion. According to Franklin Biglow, who witnessed the fire, it took barely ten minutes from a fire being reported to the building collapsing entirely.
Thankfully, nobody was injured, but the entire structure burned down with few remains lasting to this day.
What Has Been Learned From New York Crystal Palace?
There is an eerie coincidence that both New York’s Crystal Palace and London’s Crystal Palace were destroyed by fire in mysterious circumstances, and both highlight the importance of robust foundations as well as aesthetic beauty.
The use of glass shading was an innovation that made conservatories more comfortable, the building was more elaborate in design, and these elements have shaped the movement away from a pure focus on form in conservatory design and back to a more aesthetic harmony with surrounding buildings.