The East Greenhouse at Oregon State University built in 1928, tucked between Withycombe Hall and Cordley Hall, is made up of 19 separate greenhouse rooms and holds space for teaching, as well a variety of ongoing research projects.
The Greenhouse is used by College of Agricultural Sciences and the Agricultural Experiment Station staff and students from the botany and horticulture departments for teaching and research purposes, according to Jim Ervin, the manager of the OSU east and west greenhouses.
“The teaching greenhouse space for both botany and horticulture takes up about 40 percent of the greenhouse space,” Ervin said. “The rest are used for research purposes and there are a variety of projects going on.”
Ervin added, what makes the OSU greenhouses so unique is the fact that it is a research and teaching facility. The greenhouse facility has the ability to grow almost any commodity plant that grows in Oregon at any given time. This can range from fruits to grains to trees.
“We have wheat, barley, hazelnuts, strawberries, tomatoes, corn the list goes on,” Ervin said. “Douglas Fir trees, Cedar trees, potatoes, all kinds of plant material that you normally wouldn’t think would be growing in a greenhouse.”