Happy birthday to the Climatron! Take a look through 60 years of pictures. – STLtoday.com

For 60 years now, a tropical forest has lived in St. Louis, capped off by a botanical bubble that serves as a beacon for the Missouri Botanical Garden.

A thousand guests gathered on Oct. 1, 1960, for the dedication ceremony of the Climatron, the worlds first geodesic greenhouse.

"Our life will remain endurable and desirable only so long as we remain in contact with nature," Detlev W. Bronk, president of the National Academy of Science, told the crowd.

The 70-foot tall dome, 175 feet in diameter, covers more than half an acre with 2,425 panels of heat-strengthened glass. It has no interior support or columns that go floor to ceiling. With an average temperature of 64 degrees at night and 85 degrees during the day, its favorite year-round attraction. LED lights were installed in the Climatron in 2018 for the nighttime event Flora Borealis, and now the beacon can beckon in a rainbow of colors. It will be glowing Wednesday and Thursday night this week for the 60th.

The Climatron closed for three months this spring and summer as staffers worked inside to make it navigable during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened in August.

As the weather cools during its birthday week, visitors will once again seek out the Climatron for an escape to the tropics, right here in St. Louis.

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Happy birthday to the Climatron! Take a look through 60 years of pictures. - STLtoday.com