The Bloedel Floral Conservatory is a conservatory and

aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flig ...

located at the top of Queen Elizabeth Park in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

History

Leading up to the national centennial in 1967, communities and organizations across Canada were encouraged to engage in centennial projects to celebrate the country's 100th anniversary. The projects ranged from special one-time events to local improvement projects. In Vancouver, Stuart Lefeaux, superintendent of the Vancouver Park Board, and his deputy Bill Livingstone proposed an exotic plant conservatory that would be open to the public. Building a conservatory on top of Queen Elizabeth Park's Little Mountain was a complicated project. The city had already leased the top of the mountain to the Greater Vancouver Water Board and they had built a -acre open water reservoir for the city's potable water supply. A concrete lid was constructed in 1965 to cover the reservoir, but approval was needed to build the conservatory's surrounding plaza on top of the cover. The project was not to detract from the natural beauty of the site, nor to jeopardize the quality of the potable water supply in the reservoir. Climates had to be simulated for temperate, tropical and arid areas in the botanical displays inside the conservatory, and the project was not to exceed the budget. Giving the immense concrete plaza over the reservoir an attractive garden atmosphere meant working within rigid and expensive water board restrictions. These challenges were overcome, and the conservatory was constructed next to this reservoir, which remains a major source of water for the city today. Philanthropy from extraction companies was at an all-time high during the 1960s, so Lefeux and Livingstone looked for a way to get the project funded. They approached Prentice Bloedel of the

Macmillan Bloedel MacMillan Bloedel Limited was a Canadian forestry company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company was formed in 1951 as MacMillan and Bloedel through the merger of Bloedel, Stewart and Welch with the H. R. MacMillan Export Com ...

Lumber Company. The Bloedel Foundation put forward $1.25 million in conjunction with contributions by the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to build the Bloedel Conservatory, the Dancing Fountains and the surrounding plaza. This gift was the largest the city of Vancouver had received to that date. Architect McKinley Underwood designed the triodetic dome – an avant-garde structure inspired by Buckminster Fuller’s iconic Expo ’67 dome in Montreal. The triodetic dome frame was manufactured entirely in Ottawa and shipped 3,000 miles across the country to Queen Elizabeth Park. Once it arrived, the structural framework was erected in just 10 days. The entire dome and plaza took 18 months to complete. The grand opening of the conservatory took place to much fanfare on December 6, 1969, and hosted over 500,000 people in its first year of operation. Prentice and his wife Virginia, both avid art collectors, also donated the monumental bronze sculpture 'Knife Edge - Two Piece' by famed artist

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

. In November 2009, facing a budget shortfall, the

Vancouver Park Board The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, commonly referred to as the Vancouver Park Board, is the elected board with exclusive possession, jurisdiction and control over public parks in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Established by an ...

voted in favour of closing the conservatory, citing the approximately $240,000 CDN annual operating budget, the need for a roof replacement as well as other major capital costs as reasons for the decision. The closure was to take effect on March 1, 2010, just after Vancouver had finished hosting the 2010 Winter Olympic and

Paralympic Games The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disability, disabilities. There are Winter Paralympic Games, Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 ...

. In response to the decision, several groups formed in order to lobby both the board and city council. In early January 2010, a commissioner reported that attendance numbers had increased in December 2009 when compared to December 2008, following the completion of construction projects at the adjacent reservoir on Little Mountain and along Cambie Street. By the end of January, the Friends of the Bloedel Association had helped raise $80,000, and were projecting $250,000 by the proposed March closure. In late February, the park board voted to keep the facility open and asked for proposals on running it. On April 29, 2010, the Friends of the Bloedel Association and VanDusen Botanical Garden Association submitted a proposal to the Vancouver Park Board to run the Bloedel Conservatory as part of the VanDusen Botanical Gardens, and the conservatory remained open. At least one other proposal was received, but the joint proposal of the Friends of the Bloedel and the Association was approved by the Services and Budgets Committee of the Vancouver Park Board on July 20, 2010, and unanimously approved by the full Park Board on September 20, 2010. On May 29, 2013, the Friends of the Bloedel won the City of Vancouver Heritage Commission Award of Honour, which "denotes an outstanding contribution to heritage conservation in the City of Vancouver and recognises the advocacy and successful efforts to save and revitalize landmark sites". The VanDusen Botanical Garden Association later changed their name to the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association to reflect the additional management of Bloedel Conservatory.

Plants and animals

The conservatory contains three habitats: tropical rainforest, subtropical rainforest, and desert. Over 200

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s of various species live in the dome, and tropical fish of several species. In addition, The Bloedel Floral Conservatory dome houses approximately 500 species of plants.

Architecture

Located above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

, the conservatory itself is a triodetic dome in diameter, high, and is made up of 1,490 plexiglass bubbles of different sizes and 2,324 pieces of extruded aluminum tubing. It contains 8 air circulating units and 24 mist sprayers to control temperature and humidity for the three climate zones inside the dome. In the plaza adjacent to the conservatory dome is a bronze sculpture by

, ''

Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 ''Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65'' is an abstract bronze sculpture by Henry Moore. It is one of Moore's earliest sculptures in two pieces, a mode that he started to adopt in 1959. Its form was inspired by the shape of a bone fragment. Moore creat ...

''. It was donated to the Park Board by modern art collector Prentice Bloedel and his wife Virginia, alongside their donation of funding to build the conservatory, and the surrounding plaza. The piece was the first non-commemorative sculpture accepted by the Vancouver Park Board for installation.

Photo gallery

File:Bloedel with fountains.jpg, Bloedel Floral Conservatory dome seen from the grounds File:Bloedel Conservatory Dome.jpg, Jungle environment within the dome File:Yellow-headed amazon in Bloedel Conservatory.jpg, Yellow-headed amazon in Bloedel Conservatory File:Scarlet Macaw in Bloedel Conservatory.jpg, Scarlet macaw in Bloedel Conservatory

Filming location

The conservatory has been used as a filming location for several movies and science fiction series including '' G-Saviour'', ''

Battlestar Galactica ''Battlestar Galactica'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Glen A. Larson. It began with the original television series in 1978, and was followed by a short-run sequel series, '' Galactica 1980'', a line of book adaptat ...

'', ''

Stargate SG-1 ''Stargate SG-1'' (often stylized in all caps, or abbreviated ''SG-1'') is a military science fiction Adventure fiction, adventure television series within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate, ''Stargate'' franchise. The show, created by Brad Wrig ...

'', ''

Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda ''Andromeda'' (formally titled ''Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda'') is a space opera television series, based on unused material by Gene Roddenberry, developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, and produced by Roddenberry's widow, Majel Barrett. The series ...

'' and '' Beyond the Black Rainbow''. Filming of a scene from episode 21, Season 3 of

Supergirl Supergirl is the name of several fictional superheroines appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The original, current, and most well known Supergirl is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), Kara Zor-El, the cousin of superhero Superman. Th ...

also took place here. Also the 1986 movie

The Boy Who Could Fly ''The Boy Who Could Fly'' is a 1986 American fantasy drama film written and directed by Nick Castle. It was produced by Lorimar Productions for 20th Century Fox, and released theatrically on August 15, 1986. The film stars Lucy Deakins as 14- ...

References

External links

*
Friends of the Bloedel

Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association
{{Zoos Gardens in Canada Culture of Vancouver Aviaries in Canada Tourist attractions in Vancouver Botanical gardens in Canada Greenhouses in Canada Buildings and structures in Vancouver