Welcome to On magazine I'm Michael Bartley!

Pittsburgh has ha a lot of first WQED, was the first public televisio station.

The first polio vaccin was developed here in Pittsburgh by Doctor Jonas Salk.

The first gas station opened in 1913 on Bau Boulevard in Pittsburgh.

And the first motion picture theater was the Nickelodeo on Smithfield Street in 1905.

Now Pittsburgh can lay clai to yet another first with the opening of the most energy efficien conservatory in the world.

It's impressive, but it's th exhibit inside the conservatory that will attract visitor and indoor tropical forest inspired by the plants, peopl and culture of Thailand.

[Music Plays] The first time I walked in here, my first thought wa this is home.

This is really, this exactl the way Thailand would feel.

And not just the tree but just the humidity of my dad.

It's perfect!

It is a brand new, multimillion dollar exhibit at Phipps Conservator and Botanical Gardens in Oakland, a Thailand inspired tropical fores that is now open to the public, after years of carefu planning and preparation.

[Sawing] But before any constructio or planting began, two Phipps staf members went on a long journey their missio to bring Thailand to Pittsburgh.

[Music Plays] In Thailand, they're literally orchid falling out of the trees.

When you go to a restaurant, they always put orchid in your water glasses and garnishes on your plate.

And I think to really give people the feelin that they've been to a country by coming through this exhibit, we had to get it right and we had to experience i ourselves to get it right.

Karen traveled to Thailand wit her coworker Heather Mikolas.

We reall planned an aggressive itinerary so that we could get to se everything we needed to see.

I wanted to really see the cour culture in action.

Just look at people's yards.

Look at park and gardens, temples, museums, but also to get ou and hike around in the cloud forests and check ou the natural national parks.

It's just so different.

I had been to other tropical places but mostly English speaking tropical places, so just not being able to rea the signs, not being able to speak the language.

Being overcome b the smell of jasmine in the air.

Beautiful beautiful architecture.

Just so foreign to any plac I had ever been before.

And then getting ou into the countryside and just seeing the orchid and seeing the lush forests.

Its just beautiful place!

[Water Falls] A beautiful place.

Successfull recreated at Phipps.

I think we did a great job that so many department came together, pulled togethe to pull off this exhibit.

And local member of Pittsburgh's Thai community are also happ about the garden.

They are doing a great job.

You know, the people at tip absolutely impressed me because not only that, they make sure that the plant and the tree are authentic.

They also really sensitive t the culture of Thailand as well.

And they asked me all the time.

You know they would have something plan and they would keep asking me is this all right?

You know, it's it's it's just, you know not offensive to anybody.

And they really, reall make sure that everything is authenti and everything is respected to Thailand, which, you know, I canno say thanks enough to fix.

What wa instrumental in helping Phipps reach out to Pittsburgh' Thai community?

He also helped to organiz a special Buddhist blessing for the Thailan inspired garden.

So that is a Buddhist blessing.

Salomone.

The best way to think about this is to every time in Thailan when we have a new house, this is what we do.

We invited them to come i and bless the house.

[Thailand Chanting] The first step i he asked the participant whether or not they are willin to accept the five pieces, the Buddhist precepts, and they the audience will say, yes.

[Thailand Chanting] Everybod paid homage to the Buddha, to his teaching and to the monk and then the rest, all living, being in this place.

And then and then the next thing, he' also blessing the holy water that late on being spread out and the.

[Thailand Chanting] So basicall is to make this place an auspicious location.

It was also importan the monks bless the exhibits.

Entryway.

Right.

That's the special poly writing.

Basically, it's tubing i good things into the place and also to prevent evi from coming in as well.

So, so that's that's wha the, the, the symbol is for.

But along with the mysteries of Buddha and the natural beaut of the plant life, the new exhibit is als a model of energy efficiency.

Richard Pochettino is th executive director of Phipps.

We did things like we di computerized shading systems to really block ou some of the somewhat.

It gets too hot.

We made them do double duty so that they can also be energ blankets in the wintertime.

We put in root zone heatin because somebody found that if you keep the roots of tropical plant warm in the wintertime, you could turn the temperatur down about ten degrees a night, just like yo probably do at home.

Save a lot of money that way.

Save a lot of energy!

We figured out a way to use double pane insulated glas on the roof of the conservatory, instead of a single pan that's traditionally used in conservatory design.

That alone is going to save u 30% on our energy cost.

A natural cooling syste will also cut costs.

We buried 6, 24-inch diameter concrete pipes.

Each one of them is 300ft long.

We buried the under the greenhouses about 15ft on the groun with the earth stays 55 degrees year round.

And the idea there is when the hot air goes ou through the vents, it has to pull makeu air from down below.

What's going to pull i through the tunnels?

And as the air goes throug the tunnels, it'll cool off.

It's like getting fre air conditioning.

The cool air comes up throug these grates, strategically positioned under benche located throughout the exhibit.

And then the final thin that we're really excited about is through a gran from the state of Pennsylvania.

We've put a solid oxid fuel cell into space to produce all the electricit for the new conservatory.

The first fuel cel in a conservatory in the world is now providing al the electricity for this space.

When you add all those things u together, you find out that we've got the most energ efficient conservatory in the worl right here in Pittsburgh.

The Tropical Forest Thailan exhibit will be on display for the next two years, and the folks at Phipp have big plans for it.

A very extensive educatio programs planned for this facility.

A lot of program designed for school children.

[Music Plays] But visitors may find the simple pleasures of the garde are the most exquisite.

There's actually a special tre that is near and dear to my hear because as a Buddhist, the body tree is actuall very special.

It is a tree under whic the Buddha becomes enlightened.

So that's the best part.

That's what I love for me.

[Music Plays [Water Falls] Its a great exhibit!

You have to see it.

It's open to the publi seven days a week.

Phipps has a numbe of educational programs planned for students and adults and the Thailand exhibit also feature interactive displays where you can learn more about Thailand and tropical forest and energy conservation.

And you saw the Buddhist monks who were at Phipp the day that we were there.

As we were putting the stor together, we learned something interestin about Buddha.

Take a look.

This figure the serene, seated Buddha, is universally accepte as the Supreme Buddha.

Now take a look at this.

This smiling figure with the roun belly is actually believed to be a representatio of a medieval Chinese monk, and so is not technicall an image of Buddha.

But there is also belief in more than one Buddha.

It's all very interesting.