Episode 40: Craftsmanship with Alan Stein and Nancy Vitris of Tanglewood Conservatories

Alan Stein of Tanglewood Conservatories has combined his love of woodworking with art and architecture. Together with his wife Nancy Vitris, they design and build 19^th century, English inspired glass structures, crafted by former ship builders on the Chesapeake Bay. 

As part of our series of conversations with craftspeople, we asked Alan and Nancy about their craft, how Conservatories are designed, and the collaborative process behind these one-of-a-kind glass, steel and wood framed buildings.

Alan explains,  "I started out as a woodworker, learning from my father in his basement shop. Then I studied art before attending architecture school. Now, I apply all three disciplines."  Prior to founding Tanglewood Conservatories, Alan Stein had a design build business. When one of his clients asked him to design and build a conservatory, he agreed to it without ever having done it before.

"We taught ourselves how to make conservatories by visiting the great ones in England. I sketched our client's structure on the eight-hour plane trip home."  Thus, Tanglewood Conservatories was born. 

Listen in as this husband-and-wife team talks about the intersection of crafting by hand and machine, how they launched a craftsmanship training program in their local high schools and how this was the foundation for their own in-house apprentice program for Tanglewood Conservatories craftspeople. 

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