Perry Conservatory, Norfolk Botanical Garden

The Perry Conservatory is the centrepiece of the Garden of Tomorrow project at Norfolk Botanical Garden, a private non-profit garden in Norfolk, Virginia. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on 1 September 2021, the construction contract was signed on 17 November 2022 and work began in January 2023. According to the garden's updates: footings for the tropical section in June 2023, steel framing in the autumn, glass roof on the Tropical House in February 2024, glazed walls through the spring and summer of 2024.

The opening was nonetheless pushed back several times. In January 2025 the garden was still aiming for October 2025; Dills Architects announced spring 2026 and the gardening press late summer 2026. Arid House plants arrived between January and March 2026, the Tropical House received its first plants in March, and Dale Chihuly's works were installed between March and May. Member-only days ran from 11 to 13 September 2026; the project website and the Virginian-Pilot give 14 September as the opening to the general public, while other articles cite 12 September, the first day of the members' festival.

According to Dills Architects, the building replaces an outdated tropical display house and quadruples the capacity for plants. The whole expansion cost 50 million dollars, against an initial estimate of 30 million; it is funded mostly by some 3,000 private donors, with the City of Norfolk contributing 5 million dollars to the planning, the local newspaper reports.

The conservatory covers about 26,000 square feet (nearly 2,400 m²) on two levels. Its frame is steel, covered with glass panels on the roof and the walls; the Virginian-Pilot notes a fine dot pattern on the glazing meant to deter bird strikes, and the garden mentions a brick facade for the mechanical and restroom areas. Construction updates distinguish a Tropical House, an Arid House and an exhibit area, the Special Exhibit House. Dills Architects, for its part, describes four climatized biomes, a count the press does not repeat.

Mechanical systems weigh heavily in the project: a boiler and heating circuits, fans, misters and, in the Tropical House, retractable shade sails fitted under the glass roof. The soil mixes are prepared without peat. An elevator serves the upper level, where the Skywalk, a gift of Kay and Al Abiouness, runs: this two-storey outdoor walkway passes through the inside of the Tropical House, follows the side of the building and reaches the rooftop garden of the Brock Entry Pavilion; its decking is 95 percent recycled material. Dills Architects lists among the contributors The Green Room Landscape Architecture (biome consultant), Sinclair Pratt Cameron (structure) and PACE Collaborative (mechanical and electrical engineering).

According to the Virginian-Pilot, the two biomes together hold 450 species, with an emphasis on plants that are threatened or extinct in the wild. The route passes first through the Arid House, where cacti and succulents grow in a gravel bed; a group of saguaros (Carnegiea gigantea) was replanted there after being rescued from a development site in Arizona, alongside a rare cactus native to Florida, the Fragrant Prickly Apple. The Tropical House shows, among others, the Vulcan Palm, a yellow-flowered Hawaiian palm extinct in the wild whose natural pollinator has died out, so it needs hand pollination. Fine Gardening names the same plant ʻōlula (Brighamia insignis). Caladiums, Flame Violet, neoregelias and star begonias complete the display.

The plants are joined by CHIHULY: The Perry Collection, a permanent installation of works by Dale Chihuly created in 2024: the Opal and Primrose Spire Towers dominate the Arid House, the Chiffon and Sangria Azalea Chandelier honours the African American workers who built the garden in the 1930s, and pieces hung from the rafters or set in a central pool punctuate the Tropical House.

The conservatory stands a short walk from the Brock Entry Pavilion, the garden's new welcome building (ticketing, shop, Reeds Bistro); visits are organized in timed-entry slots booked through the project website. The route starts in the Arid House, crosses the Tropical House and then climbs onto the Skywalk, from which visitors look down on the biomes, the rose garden, one of the largest on the East Coast according to the garden, and the pavilion's rooftop garden. The rest of the grounds justify extending the day: the official page announces more than sixty themed gardens, and the Dominion Energy Garden of Lights, a light show, begins in November according to the garden's updates.