The Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Orchid Conservatory (KOC) at Old Dominion University opened in 2008 as the beloved brainchild of the late Dr. Arthur Kaplan, a prominent Norfolk physician and philanthropist, who grew thousands of orchids in greenhouses at his home near the main campus. Dr. Kaplan convinced University administrators that a dedicated space featuring orchids and other tropical plants would provide strong and unique opportunities for education and recreational enjoyment serving ODU and Hampton Roads. With the help of family and friends in the community, Dr. Kaplan secured all funds needed to build the facility and initiate a supporting endowment. He also gifted the bulk of his cherished orchid specimens to ODU to establish a signature research and display collection.

The KOC was a much-loved attraction at ODU for over 16 years, welcoming thousands of on and off campus visitors, including out of state tourists, to its landscaped display house that offered an immersion experience into a pocket habitat of lowland tropical rainforest set with a continuously changing array of magnificent orchids. Additionally, the greenhouses that nurtured the collections were desirable destinations for organized tours of small groups of students and nature lovers who wanted a greater in-depth look into the botany and horticulture of orchids.

In 2021, as ideas began to coalesce for the creation of a new Biological Sciences Building that would be built adjacent to the KOC site, project planners realized that there was a prime opportunity to enhance and expand upon Dr. Kaplan’s legacy by integrating a new and larger KOC into the structure. The resulting highly dynamic design for the future KOC seamlessly blends the facility with the entire building; a two and a half storey public display glasshouse wraps the exterior southwest corner, its interior glass wall on the north side is shared with a spacious interior atrium, and an elevated rockwork wall with cascading rivulets of water anchors its east side. Collections and research greenhouses for the conservatory and additional ODU biological research will occupy the entire southern side of the fourth floor.

The building site incorporates the existing footprint of the original KOC, along with two other buildings, to make space for what will be one of the largest structures on the ODU campus. Although it is sad to have the old KOC go, it will soon be reborn as a facility that will accommodate larger visitor groups and highlight a much greater diversity of plants.

Construction of the ODU Biological Sciences Building will commence with a groundbreaking ceremony set for late April of this year and end with a projected completion in late 2028. In the meantime, the KOC collection of orchids and tropical plants is thriving in a temporary off campus location where its size and content will steadily increase in anticipation of occupying its new home.

ODU looks forward to welcoming visitors to the new Arthur and Phyllis Kaplan Conservatory when it opens. We believe that Dr. Kaplan would be tremendously pleased with all that his dreams are manifesting.