College of Natural Sciences Research & Education Greenhouse

The Education Greenhouse, a new plant research facility for the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, includes a new 10,000-sf research greenhouse; a new 5,500-sf laboratory for the Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences Department (PSIS); and a renovated 4,500-sf teaching greenhouse.

The new Greenhouse provides state-of-the-art spaces for plant experimentation and sophisticated automated systems to control natural and artificial lighting, temperature, humidity, irrigation, and fertilization. It contains 12 rooms arranged in two wings, one with four 1,000-sf rooms and the other with eight rooms of varying sizes. Two rooms are specifically designed as propagation rooms, and two with full air temperature control for research requiring intensive regulated controls.                                              

The teaching greenhouse is an open, flexible environment for introductory botany instruction, featuring two research laboratories, a wet/dry classroom, and a core facility for seed germination. The headhouse consists of two laboratories, a potting room/classroom, a growth chamber room and office for the Greenhouse superintendent.

The greenhouses are LEED Gold Certified. Sustainable features include an innovative stormwater retention system, sustainably harvested woods, a “heat wheel” energy recovery system in the labs, and an evaporative cooling system in the greenhouse.