For the fans who live and breathe sports, Pittsburgh is Steelers City.
For Harry Potter lovers and Hogwarts-heads, Pittsburgh is all about the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh, a place where Harry himself could have strolled through … had he ever bothered to travel to Pennsylvania.
If your last name is Carnegie, Pittsburgh is the city upon which your loaded ancestors bestowed a part of their fortune.
Since I don’t fall in either of these three categories, for me Pittsburgh will always be the home of the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden, the place that helped me shield my sanity from “change fatigue” when I first moved to this city.
Phipps Conservatory is not just a majestic Victorian glasshouse and botanical grounds, but also a center for cutting-edge research focused on sustainable innovation.
Phipps is the perfect example of how an institution that opened its doors for the first time in the 1890s can not only keep up with the times, but also refashion itself as a trailblazing leader in their field.
Here are nine things you should know to make the most of your visit to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.
3 Things to KNOW before you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden
+ Free outdoor gardens. Even before you step foot inside the impressive glasshouses, you can stroll around and enjoy a good portion of the Phipps charm for free. If you head to the northwest of the main building, as you come from the UPitt campus, you’ll find an enchanted garden that will pull you right into its midst. As you step inside, you’ll find several smaller pockets of plant collections, including an herb garden, a medicinal garden, a dahlia patch, perennials, ferns and a pond.
On the opposite side of the Phipps main entrance, as you come from Schenley Park and Panther Hollow Bridge, you’ll find the aquatic garden in the form of expansive ponds filled with a variety of water lily specimens, all guarded by the statue of Neptune, the Roman god of the sea.
+ Rotating exhibitions. Before you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, have a look on their website to see what’s on display. In addition to the permanent displays, there are temporary shows celebrating every season. (And just in case you’re thinking that visiting in winter doesn’t make any sense, that’s when the light show turns the entire landscape into a fairyland worthy of Stars Hollow.)
From shows that blend impressionist art with floral displays, to arrangements that immerse you in a multi-level sensory experience, to shaking hands with gentle giants covered in moss, the curators at Phipps are masters of variety and keeping it interesting.
+ A focus on sustainability. Phipps is one of the most sustainably-built botanical gardens in the world. It is home to the first and only greenhouse production facility to receive a Platinum LEED certification.
The entrance pavilion is also LEED certified, as is the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL) which is self-sufficient in terms of energy production.
Currently, Phipps diverts over ninety percent of the waste it produces away from the landfill. Eighty percent the waste that leaves the gardens is turned into compost and used to help build healthy soils.
3 Things to SEE when you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden
+ The desert room. If you go gaga for agave, this room is for you. If you’re a sucker for succulents, this room is definitely for you. And if you’re a cacti collector, this is your crib. I think all these alliterations have made my point, but just in case you’re a serious Susan, go check out the plant displays in this part of the Conservatory.
What’s there to see? A Joshua tree, fire barrels, a sunrise tequila agave, and a tortoise shell plant, to name a few. And you’ll be hard-pressed to find all of these beauties in the same room anywhere else on the East Coast.
+ Tropical forest conservatory. There’s so much natural beauty at Phipps that picking a room to recommend seems like an impossible feat. But if you want an indoor waterfall, winding pathways and bridges, a fish pond, and lush palm trees in one place, head for the tropical room.
This area features a different region every three years, with interactive learning stations that inform and entertain. As part of the state-of-the-art eco-building, there are computer-controlled shades that control the amount of sunlight that enters the building.
+ Center for Sustainable Landscapes. The newest addition to Phipps Conservatory generates all of its own energy and treats all water captured on site. Close to this LEED Platinum-certified building, you’ll find the Nature Lab, one of the first sustainable, modular classroom spaces in the United States, built with non-toxic materials to serve as a model for how a classroom can maximize student wellness and potential.
3 Things to DO when you visit Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden
+ Have lunch at the sustainable cafe. We’re partial to soups and salads around here, and the Phipps cafe never disappoints. What’s even more impressive, is that the food is either sourced on location from Phipps’ own rooftop vegetable garden (oh yeah, look for it when you visit!) or from local farms.
Due to its commitment to promoting healthy eating habits, the cafe doesn’t sell any type of junk food or beverages with high sugar content. And you’ll definitely find no bottled water for sale. Instead, locally-filtered water is available. A lot of the ingredients are organic and produced in the United States and Canada, with a lot of the food being sourced from farms no more than 150 miles away.
+ Look for the art pieces. As you step into the Welcome Center to get your tickets and start your tour, I guarantee you’ll notice the undulating hand-blown glass chandelier. The yellow serpentine piece is one of the glass sculptures created by artist Dale Chihuly for Phipps’ permanent collection. The total Chihuly collection residing at Phipps is valued at a whooping $1.2 million.
There are several other opportunities to stop and admire the art when you visit Phipps Conservatory. From Grecian urns and Japanese limestone pagodas to the whimsical glass art of Hans Godo Frabel and the joyous sculptures by Geneva Mercer, there is truly art in every single room of this botanical garden.
+ Help kids learn about healthy food. There are many ways to keep kids entertained at Phipps, but the faux farmer’s market is fun even for adults. It’s a whole room turned into a farmer’s market setup complete with play stands, faux produce and supermarket staples. I mean, who wouldn’t like to push around mini-shopping carts and bargain for eggs with the toddler vendor behind the counter.
There are numerous other attractions that will make your time at Phipps unforgettable. So take this list more as a starting point rather than an all-encompassing guide.
Go, explore, inquire! You’ll have fun at Phipps.
All photos by Mickey Gast for Green with Purpose. Please link back to this post if you use any of these photos.
More botanical garden guides this way:
Visit Leiden Botanical Garden, the Netherlands
Visit Keukenhof Tulip Garden, the Netherlands
Visit Bonn Botanical Garden, Germany
Visit Cologne Botanical Garden, Germany
Visit Trompenburg Arboretum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Visit Delft Botanical Garden in the Netherlands
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