For sale: the world鈥檚 most controversial greenhouse. Floor space the size of three football pitches, with excellent views of Arizona鈥檚 Catalina mountains through 6500 windows.
The owners of Biosphere 2 are now trying to sell the site of their famous ecological experiment, designed as a prototype for a future space colony. Biosphere 2 was built in the 1980s by Texas billionaire Ed Bass of Fort Worth-based company Decisions Investments. The 1.25-hectare glass terrarium north of Tucson, Arizona, contained miniature rainforests, oceans and deserts.
In 1991, eight people were sealed inside along with animals and some 4000 species of plants, to live self-sufficiently for two years. It was billed as the most exciting scientific project since the lunar landings, one that could yield vital lessons about the Earth鈥檚 environment and human survival.
Advertisement
It wasn鈥檛 to be. Two unexpectedly cloudy years followed, and the crops grown by the 鈥渂iospherians鈥� were poor and plagued by insect pests. They struggled to feed themselves and developed symptoms of altitude sickness as levels of oxygen mysteriously declined.
A second team entered Biosphere 2 in 1994, but the project was also troubled by rising costs. In 1996, New York鈥檚 Columbia University took over the site management, turning it into a research and education facility. Columbia abruptly pulled out in 2003, and since then Biosphere 2 has plodded on as a tourist attraction. But the mammoth overheads mean the centre is not longer profitable.
Real-estate firm CB Richard Ellis in Tucson, which is marketing Biosphere 2 on behalf of Decisions Investments, says the sale is already attracting lots of attention. 鈥淭he structure is very, very unique, there鈥檚 nothing like it in the world,鈥� says Jerry Hawkins, a company vice-president.
