Just around a century after it was established by Pierre S. du Pont, Pennsylvania’s glorious Longwood Gardens was destined for an update. Undertaking a plan to refurbish, revamp, remodel, recondition—the project was summarized as a REimagining—with dozens of improvements in the master plan.
REconceive
The centerpiece West Conservatory is becoming a 32,000-square-foot glass house, its asymmetrical crystalline peaks seeming to float on a pool of water with multiple levels of interior gardens soaring into plantings suspended from above. State of the art glass panels, irrigation, and ventilation systems are incorporated into the redesign.
RElocate
Longwood’s unique rainforest-evoking Cascade Garden, the only extant design in America by influential Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx is being moved to a new bespoke glass conservatory of its own.
REnew
A new arcade will reframe the Water Lily Court, defining the space as an outdoor “room.”
REcreate
A new outdoor gallery with wood walls and hedges is being devised to showcase the Bonsai collection.
REnovate
Renamed “The Grove,” the Horticulture Building is being REmodeled to house administrative offices, education and meeting spaces, and a library—with a full glass end-wall overlooking the surrounding meadows.
REmove
To provide more indoor space, the earth below the existing Conservatory is being carved and the soil moved for use in other parts of the garden.
REclaim
The carved space below the Conservatory, facing the Main Fountain Gardens is being converted into restaurant and event facilities.
REcycle
Deteriorating trees removed from the project site are being fashioned into furniture by the Challenge Program in Wilmington, Deleware, a non-profit that provides vocational training to local youth.
REvive
The gardens are being landscaped and planted in new ways.
Conceived by WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism and landscape architect Reed Hilderbrand, the project, scheduled for completion in autumn 2024, aims to expand public spaces, connecting them from east to west in a newly unified but continually varied journey from lush formal gardens to views of the open meadows. Lovers of the outdoors, new visitors and old, are encouraged to come to Longwood, to REview the marvelous REvitalization.
