This was the problem: Cambridge winters are often gray and dreary, and the view from a huge floor-to-ceiling window can be bleak. How to soften that snowy scene?
The answer—a unique circular plant table, built to fit the curve of the big bay window and rising in tiers, like a fountain of greenery against the snow and ice outside.
Plant Table
This particular plant table stands in the hall of Radcliffe College’s Graduate Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Designed in America and constructed in England, it is the first object visitors see as they enter the Center, and it’s an eye-catcher.
The table is silhouetted against the window, with clusters of flowering plants poised against greens and ivy.
The table is 5′ feet high and built like a giant wedding cake. Three tiers rise above a graceful base, the largest at the bottom and the smallest at the top.
The bottom tier, a circle about four yards’ ’round, holds a series of shallow, curved green metal pans filled with pebbles and water.
Potted plants are in the pans. The two smaller shelves or tiers are made of glass.
Plants On The Table Change With The Months
Feathery ferns, greenhouse plants, and ivies always trail from shelf to shelf, curving their tendrils toward the floor.
And flowering plants mark the seasons; visitors might find pots of asters or chrysanthemums in the fall, poinsettias at Christmas time, and narcissus and tulips in the spring. Begonias and geraniums add touches of color between times.
It is, however, always a plant table— vases of cut flowers are never used. The table has a southern exposure, but strong sunlight can be controlled by full-length gray and black draw draperies which hang at the window behind.
Radcliffe Table
What makes the Radcliffe table especially attractive is how it fits into the curve of the bay and is framed by the window itself.
Credit for the idea of the table goes to Bernice B. Cronkhite, former Dean of the Radcliffe Graduate School, who wanted, she said, “a green, welcoming spot” near the Center’s front door. Dean Cronkhite and her husband presented the unusual table to the Center.
44659 by Joan Mahoney