D.C. Smith Greenhouse (University of Wisconsin–Madison)

The D.C. Smith Greenhouse replaced the Babcock Greenhouse Range, a group of glasshouses that was a campus landmark for decades, facing University Avenue and Babcock Drive. According to a 1997 article by Monroe S. Miller, the old houses, plagued by rot and insects and lacking the electrical service needed for winter growth lamps, were torn down to make room for a parking ramp; the architecture firm Flad, for its part, speaks of century-old greenhouses demolished for a new teaching laboratory. The new complex, completed in the autumn of 1996 according to the greenhouse's own website, was dedicated on Friday 4 April 1997 during the 25th anniversary of the WALSAA association, in the presence of Governor Tommy Thompson and Chancellor David Ward.

Construction cost 2.6 million dollars: Irwin Smith, son of Professor David Clyde Smith, gave half and the state paid the other half. The name honours this agronomy professor, who chaired the department for nineteen years according to the 1997 article and twenty according to the university in 1998. The article calls it the second of three major campus greenhouse complexes to be replaced, the Walnut Street one being next. The project by Flad & Associates, with David W. Black as project designer, won four awards in five months, including the Honor Award of the Wisconsin chapter of the American Institute of Architects, presented on 5 May 1998.

According to the 1997 article the building is primarily a wood-and-glass structure. The university's 1998 account counts eleven bays of about 500 sq ft each (≈ 46 m²), where students and staff set light, temperature and humidity separately. A hallway links all the bays, and the building also holds a large potting and classroom area and a chemical safety and storage room. A central computer records conditions in each bay and runs watering, lighting and the mechanical roof curtains; a hot-water system regulates temperatures, fine mesh screens limit the spread of insects and a fogging system can create a tropical haze in one bay.

The most striking element is a colonnade of tree-like columns that branch upwards to support curved wooden beams above the entrance and the conservatory, which faces Linden Drive. According to Flad, this volume gives the previously plain plant sciences building a new facade and a west entrance. The conservatory's size is 1,600 sq ft (≈ 150 m²) in the 1997 article, 1,400 (≈ 130 m²) for Flad and the university in 1998, and 1,000 (≈ 93 m²) for the Wisconsin Science Festival.

The conservatory is an exercise in interiorscaping, a young discipline that designs indoor gardens like those found in shopping malls and office buildings: it stresses the ornamental function of plants while demonstrating the science of plant culture, according to the greenhouse's website. It was planted by McCaren Design of St. Paul, Minnesota, with McRae Anderson as designer, and in 1997 received an Environmental Improvement Grand Award from the Landscape Contractors of America for its interior landscaping.

The greenhouse stands at the corner of Babcock Drive and Linden Drive, at 465 Babcock Drive, on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Its website invites learners of all ages to visit the greenhouses and conservatory during regular university hours; tours, talks or workshops can be arranged through the greenhouse manager, and the conservatory can be hired for receptions. The greenhouse also opens for special days such as UW Science Expeditions in spring, UW Family Gardening Day in May and the Wisconsin Science Festival in October.

It stands across the street from Babcock Hall and its dairy store, a block from Allen Centennial Gardens (2.5 acres and 26 themed gardens according to the greenhouse's website) and close to Steenbock Library. The Birge Hall botany greenhouse, also in the catalogue, is about 700 m away.