1959
Construction on the Climatron begins.

Climatron Construction. Scaffolding

Climatron under construction in 1959.

Construction on the Climatron begins as the old Palm House (1914) is torn down. The Climatron would be the first major construction project at the Garden in over five decades. The Climatron replaced the old Palm House which had become to signify the state of the Garden with its obsolete design and its crumbling structural integrity. The Climatron would mark a clean break with the past with its radically futuristic design based upon the architectural concepts of Buckminster Fuller who first originated the concept of the geodesic dome.