Fundraiser begins to repair Chicago conservatory

The staff at Chicago’s Garfield Park Conservatory is in a race to save decades-old plants from the coming cool weather.

The work was thrust upon them because a June 30 hail storm shattered the glass roofs of the 103-year-old facility.

As the staff gets on with its work, the Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for the replacement of about 40,000 panes of glass.

Zvezdana Kubat of the Chicago Park District says sixty percent of the facility was damaged. It took workers eight weeks to clear broken glass from the Show House and Fern Room. The work has yet to be one in the Desert House or the production houses.

Kubat says the cost of repairs hasn’t been determined, adding insurance will not be sufficient.