Botanical Seed Exchange Hall

Light spills through an arched glass roof onto a two-story hall built for trading seeds and dried flowers. Slender iron columns rise between wooden galleries stacked with books and cabinets, and a painted mural of poppies, marigolds, and violets fills the wall beneath the skylight. Long wooden counters run the length of the floor, holding rows of glass jars filled with seeds, dried petals, and herbs in green, gold, and rust. Shoppers sort through open bins of blossoms while clerks weigh parcels on brass scales and ring up purchases at wooden tills. Side aisles are lined with labeled drawers stacked to the ceiling, and a second-floor gallery looks down over the trading floor through iron railings. The long rows of matching jars line the counters like beads waiting to be sorted one by one.