Conservatory of Flowers

Long a fixture in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the Conservatory of Flowers is one of the most photographed structures in a city famous for picturesque beauty.   At 125 years old, the facility is the oldest surviving public conservatory in the western hemisphere.  Originally built in 1878 and then rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1883, it's also an architectural and engineering treasure - an extremely rare example of a prefabricated Victorian-era structure that had withstood the test of time.  In 1995, however, a severe storm caused extensive damage and led city building officials to deem it unsafe for public use.   Despite that decision, a dedicated group of paid staff and volunteers doggedly maintained and managed the site and its plants in a gallant effort to stave off further degradation, all with the hope that someday the Conservatory would be restored.  They bit off no small challenge, as many of the facility's "botanical residents" are difficult and expensive to maintain - including a 100-year-old Philodendron with five-foot tall leaves that fills much of the space beneath the Conservatory's towering central glass dome.   The ongoing campaign to save