Monday Mystery..

Where in St. Louis am I?

Yes, last week's shot was of the geodesic dome in Missouri's Botanical Gardens.  Named "The Climatron," it is the first geodesic dome to be used as a conservatory.  A geodesic dome is a spherical, or partially spherical, shell based on a network of great circles.  The geodesics intersect to form triangular, sometimes hexagonal or octagonal, elements which distribute the stress of the structure in a more balanced fashion.  Perhaps, the most famous geodesic dome is Spaceship Earth in Disney World's Epcot Center.  A conservatory is a large, glass greenhouse.  The Climatron has no interior support and no columns from floor to ceiling.  It rises 70 feet, has 1.3 million cubic feet of volume, and encloses over 24,000 square feet (more than half an acre).

Controlling a tropical rainforest's theme, The Climatron's temperatures range from 64F to 85F with an average humidity of 85%.  It houses more than 2,800 plants and more than 1,400 individual species.  Several species of birds also call The Climatron home.

While I continue to try and take a worthy picture of the structure itself, here are a couple shots I'm proud of that you can find when you go inside...

Enjoy your Monday.  Again, where is the picture at the top from?

Linnean House at Missouri Botanical Gardens

The Linnean House in St. Louis, Missouri is the oldest continuously operating greenhouse west of the Mississippi River.  It is also the only remaining greenhouse in the Missouri Botanical Garden property built during Henry Shaw's lifetime.  The Linnean House was built in 1882; Shaw, the garden's founder, died in 1890.

The greenhouse was originally built to overwinter citrus trees and bushes, but today houses many subtropical cacti and camellias.  Camellias steal the show in late winter with their blooms, and several of these plants in the Linnean House date back to the 1930s and 1940s.

The greenhouse was named in honor of Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern nomenclature or "the father of taxonomy."  The Linnean House has been through several renovations before arriving full-circle at it's original design and purpose.  The house has also endured a major hailstorm in 1927, which spurred one of the renovations.

This photo is done with an almost HDR processing "look" to overcome the horrible skies with which I had to deal last week.  I like how it turned out.  Please comment with your opinion, too, as I may dabble a bit more with this technique in the future.