Sun Catcher Conservatories Offer A Traditional Variation Of The Popular, Versatile Sunroom

The word “conservatory” conjures up all sorts of images.

A school or room for music, for example, as in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Indoor botanical gardens, such as those in San Antonio and Cincinnati, also are known as conservatories.

And let’s not forget the formula English mystery: “I say, Ainsworth, Lord Mumblypegg has just been found dead in the conservat’ry!”

These days, however, the conservatory has become a synonym for a sun-filled center of attention, whether or not the room has a Steinway, a potted palm or a lifeless body.

These rooms, a much-prized feature of the homes of the well-to-do in times past, are becoming a hot item in new construction and a selling point in older houses as well.

“They are definitely growing in popularity,” said Kira McCarron, vice president of marketing for Toll Bros., a luxury home builder in the Philadelphia area, which offers a 30-foot-by-15-foot conservatory as an option. “It’s great flex space for any and all purposes.”

It’s popular and expensive. The price of a custom-built conservatory can range from $20,000 to $300,000, builders and manufacturers say.

How does a conservatory differ from a sunroom, which is the better-known description of this kind of architectural feature?

Snob appeal, said Mark Barocco, president of Renaissance Conservatories in Lancaster, Pa., a manufacturer of conservatories.

“The word ‘conservatory’ is usually used to refer to a more traditional sunroom design,” Barocco said. “It conjures up an image of Europe, where sunrooms, conservatories and orangeries had a functional value as well as an aesthetic one.

“There are several levels of customers” for conservatories, Barocco said. “Those at the upper end are people who are willing to pay extra for bragging rights.

“We look at ourselves as producing a world-class product that appeals to people with a sense of value.”

According to New Homeowner magazine, the average cost of a sunroom addition of any kind is about $14,000. About 90 percent of that will be recouped when the house is sold, the magazine reported.

It’s not certain whether that percentage is the same for traditional conservatories. But people who can afford bragging rights tend not to care about resale values.

The traditional definition of a conservatory, such as began appearing in France and England in the 18th century, is a place to display ornamental plants with showy leaves, stems and flowers.

According to D.G. Hessayon, a British greenhouse expert and author, the conservatory differs from the greenhouse in that the chief consideration of the former is “the well-being and comfort of people,” while that of the latter is “the well-being and comfort of plants.

“In most but not all cases the structure is attached to the house,” Hessayon wrote in “The Greenhouse Expert” (Transworld Publishers, 1994). In most cases, “the structure is decorative and with external ornamentation. Some form of decorative flooring is present, ranging from simple matting to marble tiles.”

Whatever you call them, these rooms or structures involve lots of glass, which is why they all qualify as sunrooms. The glass is used to control solar radiation - energy from the sun - by reducing or increasing the amount of heat the sunlight brings into a room at a given time.

Where the traditional conservatory and the modern sunroom are almost identical in function is in the garden room, which, according to Hessayon, is both extra living area and home for plants.

When the living area is of primary importance, however, it is a garden room. When the plants predominate, it is a conservatory.

And while some luxury new-home builders - notably Toll and the David Cutler Group, also of the Philadelphia area - are offering conservatories as options, the majority of conservatories under construction these days are additions to existing homes.

“About 60 percent of our business involves remodeling,” said Barocco.

Most of the designs of modern-day conservatories are variations on familiar traditional styles: Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and Gothic.