Longwood Gardens, one of many largest and most historic gardens within the US, is unveiling a years-long enlargement and renovation on 22 November. The $250m challenge has remodeled the huge public area consisting of greater than 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands and meadows in south-eastern Pennsylvania. Notably, this contains the cautious reconstruction of the late Brazilian artist and panorama architect Roberto Burle Marx’s 1992 cascade backyard, which had fallen into disrepair previously three a long time.
Longwood has a storied historical past. For 1000’s of years the Lenni Lenape tribe hunted and fished on the land, earlier than they had been forcefully faraway from Pennsylvania within the 18th century (associated artefacts, like quartz spear factors, have been discovered all through the property and are displayed right this moment in Longwood’s Peirce-du Pont Home). A Quaker farmer named George Peirce bought and cleared greater than 400 acres of the land in 1700; a brick farmhouse constructed by one among his sons in 1730 nonetheless stands right this moment. Peirce’s heirs had been inquisitive about pure historical past and commenced planting wild and uncommon specimens on the grounds, creating an arboretum that coated 15 acres by the mid-1800s. However the household ultimately misplaced curiosity in sustaining the property, and the arboretum started to deteriorate. In 1906, the industrialist Pierre S. du Pont bought the land to save lots of its bushes from being bought for timber. Through the years he facilitated the creation of intensive gardens, which he opened to the general public in 1921, in addition to a basis to supervise a sequence of expansions and additions—together with a well-known 600-jet fountain that places on choreographed water reveals. Longwood was added to the US’s Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1972.
The gardens’ most up-to-date revamp was spearheaded by the structure agency Weiss/Manfredi in collaboration with the panorama architects Reed Hilderbrand, who labored with the Burle Marx Panorama Design Studio to supervise the switch of the cascade backyard to an enlarged customized glasshouse. The cascade backyard includes 16 waterfalls that move right into a pool, framed with climbing vines and clusters of putting bromeliads. Many of the unique vegetation have been changed over time, as some had grown too tall for the glasshouse and had been crushed in opposition to the ceiling; others had been badly burnt because of poor local weather management.
Sharon Loving, Longwood’s chief horticulture and amenities officer, was there when Burle Marx accomplished his unique backyard, recalling that it was “like watching a magician work”. Burle Marx, who died solely two years after finishing the cascade backyard, had first made connections with Longwood’s trustees via a Pennsylvania-based liaison within the late Nineteen Eighties. A few of them travelled to Rio de Janeiro to look at how Burle Marx labored. It was first proposed that he design the East Conservatory at Longwood, however that challenge fell via, as his studio felt that Burle Marx’s Modernist method to panorama design wouldn’t be applicable for the area. As an alternative, he opted to assemble a cascade backyard inside a 3,500 sq. ft former desert glasshouse with a 22ft ceiling.
“He arrived and didn’t comply with the planting plan as intently as we anticipated,” Loving says. “We had been requested to supply sufficient vegetation to fill the home twice. He would stroll across the area, typically taking us by the arm, or lie down within the shade. Then he would instruct the entire staff to seize vegetation and would start ‘portray’ the vegetation on the wall, telling us this one ought to go right here or there. It was very intuitive and natural. He stated he noticed the challenge just like the crescendo of a symphony. He wished it to be highly effective, the place you’d have the sound of water and all of your senses could be engaged. He mixed his plant data, his talent as a panorama architect and all of his experience in music and artwork when he labored.”
The $6.5m revamp of the cascade backyard concerned updating its mechanical and fountain methods to stabilise local weather, resetting a lot of the unique schist of the planting beds and backyard partitions, and reinstalling round 180 vegetation salvaged from the unique glasshouse. It additionally lifted the height of the backyard to a top of 30 ft and expanded its general footprint to three,800 sq. ft, including further vegetation to present it the “rainforest expertise” that Burle Marx had envisioned. A central path and ramp had been additionally constructed for accessibility.
Treading calmly
Burle Marx’s idea drawings, building design, planting plans and later 3D scans of the unique cascade backyard, that are held in Longwood’s everlasting assortment, significantly knowledgeable the challenge. The architects additionally labored with Anita Berrizbeitia, a panorama architect and Burle Marx scholar, to stipulate probably the most vital options of the backyard. A sequence of workshops adopted to resolve which elements of the backyard might be modified and which needs to be intently reproduced.
“We knew the backyard would must be dismantled, and realised how necessary it was to tread calmly and punctiliously,” says Kristin Frederickson, a co-founder of Reed Hilderbrand. “Reconstruction assumes {that a} backyard has been misplaced and will likely be rebuilt, whereas preservation assumes a backyard is in place and also you’re defending it. This was someplace within the center.” She provides {that a} level of significance was retaining the “sense of immersion because the adjustments had been executed”.
Reed Hilderbrand was instrumental in consulting on the cascade backyard’s long-term conservation, aiding with effective tuning the design in collaboration with Weiss/Manfredi, which sought to create “a brand new dwelling for the backyard the place it was not solely higher positioned but additionally environmentally and architecturally way more conducive to the attractive work that Burle Marx did”, says Marion Weiss, a cofounder of Weiss/Manfredi.
Along with the cascade backyard, a centrepiece of Longwood’s enlargement and renovation challenge has been the addition of the West Conservatory—a 32,000 sq. ft area stated to be one of many largest within the US, containing a number of gardens, swimming pools, fountains and almost 2,000 glass panels. Like Burle Marx’s backyard, the conservatory is a “dwelling and respiration” glasshouse, in accordance with Longwood, with automated partitions and roof panels. Longwood has additionally added 17 acres to its gardens, an schooling and administrative constructing, a bonsai courtyard, a renewed seasonal restaurant and different options.
Longwood will maintain a design symposium in October 2025, bringing in representatives from Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hilderbrand in addition to different audio system, to debate Burle Marx’s legacy and affect on Twentieth-century panorama structure and the significance of the cascade backyard—his solely such surviving work within the US.
