New orchid greenhouse nears construction

From The Star Press: MUNCIE — A new greenhouse befitting Ball State University’s world-renowned Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank has been designed and construction bids are expected to be sought in early August.

“We wanted to work within the context of the (Marilyn) Glick Center (for Glass),” said architect Mike Engledow of the Indianapolis firm arcDESIGN.

The new greenhouse picks up on some of the architectural qualities established at the Glick Center, but at the same time the greenhouse will be its own entity, as the architects used some of their own expressions on it, Engledow said.

The new building will be called the Dr. Joe R. and Alice Pursley Rinard Greenhouse.

Rinard, a retired dentist from Fort Wayne, donated $600,000 to the university in memory of his late wife, who graduated from Ball State with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1954 and also earned a master’s degree in speech pathology in 1963.

As Engledow noted, the existing Orchid Greenhouse is really a growing/working greenhouse.

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