Longwood Gardens Unveils Its $250 Million Makeover

Paul Redman, Longwood Gardens president and CEO, outside the new West Conservatory. Photos by Jim Graham

Internationally renowned Longwood Gardens debuts its much-anticipated quarter-billion-dollar renovation and expansion.

The holidays are a monumental draw at Longwood Gardens. So it should come as no surprise that the internationally renowned destination chose Nov. 22—six days before Thanksgiving—for the official unveiling of “Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience.” The highly anticipated renovation and expansion project boasts a new West Conservatory and Bonsai Courtyard, a relocated Cascade Garden, a refreshed Waterlily Court, updates to the 1906 Restaurant, and the debut of an education and administration facility called the Grove.

The $250 million makeover is part of a 40-year master plan with enough change and innovation to make your head spin. Paul Redman is doing his best to stay grounded through it all. “From the financing and how we could afford to make it happen to the actual design and construction of it, we have this amazing culture of planning here,” says Longwood’s president and CEO. “The team we assembled to help guide us through gave me and the entire organization confidence that we’d succeed.”

The crown jewel of the 17-acre expansions is the West Conservatory, a 32,000-square-foot glass structure that appears to be floating on the surface of a surrounding pool. Characterized by asymmetrical peaks, The one-of-a-kind design incorporates almost 2,000 glass panels.

Almost 15 years ago, Longwood developed its “Creating a World Apart” master plan in partnership with the New York City-based architecture and design firms West 8 and Weiss/Manfredi. The plan carefully details an ambitious to-do list that laid the groundwork for “Longwood Reimagined.” “The last big project was the Main Fountain Garden revitalization,” says Redman. “That set the stage for us to install the infrastructure and pathways underground to support this project.”

The crown jewel of the 17-acre expansion is the West Conservatory, a 32,000-square-foot glass structure that appears to be floating on the surface of a surrounding pool. “There’s no other crystal palace like ours anywhere else in the world,” Redman says.

Characterized by asymmetrical peaks, the one-of-a-kind design incorporates almost 2,000 glass panels. Automated windows provide natural ventilation, the roof can open and close as the weather dictates, and a shading system is effective in both summer and winter. Temperatures are regulated by 10 earth ducts buried below the surface, and rainwater is collected from the roof and stored for use in the water features.

Plants from the Cascade Garden have been relocated to a new 3,800-square-foot glass home. “We’ve put it back together like an enormous puzzle,” says Sharon Loving, Longwood’s chief of horticulture.

“Conservatories are inherently energy-inefficient—they consume a tremendous amount of energy,” says Weiss/Manfredi partner and cofounder Marion Weiss. “Here we offer a contrast and a new paradigm: a living, breathing building. Just as the plants inside the conservatory are nourished by light, air and water, this living, breathing building is animated by these very same elements.”

Over 70 plant species can be found among the conservatory’s seasonally changing “islands,” accented by pools, canals and low fountains. For this project, New England-based landscape designer Reed Hilderbrand took his inspiration from the Mediterranean Basin, the Cape Region of South Africa, coastal California, Central Chile, and South and Southwestern Australia. Aloes, laurels, blueblossom and Greek horehound cover the ground, while cypress and 100-year-old olive trees draw the eye upward toward suspended plantings. “There are dozens of plants that we haven’t been able to showcase in the past,” says Sharon Loving, Longwood’s chief of horticulture, who’s overseeing a planting process that began this past April. “Most times, when people try to grow these plants, they’ll put in air-conditioning, but we obviously don’t want to have that type of energy consumption.”

Longwood’s 1906 Restaurant has a revamped menu, a new private dining space and floor-to-ceiling windows that offer stunning views of the Main Fountain Garden.

Instead, geothermal wells under a new parking lot feed cooler air from the earth into the building to keep conservatory temps down in warmer months. Large windows maximize air flow, and environmental control systems are managed electronically by horticulturists. “This is not typical. This garden is a sophisticated combination of plants and technology,” Loving says. “We love to push the envelope on innovation. We know we’ll have challenges, but we’re open to it.”

In 1992, Loving worked alongside the late Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx when he planted the Cascade Garden. The only existing Marx design in North America, it’s been relocated to a new 3,800-square-foot glass home. “We basically documented every plant, every stone, every waterfall—and we commissioned a 360-degree survey of the garden before it was dismantled,” says Loving. “Now we’ve put it back together like an enormous puzzle.”

Other “Longwood Reimagined” highlights include the following:

• The Bonsai Courtyard alongside the West Conservatory features 50 plants donated by the esteemed Kennett Collection, which houses one of the finest private bonsai collections outside of Asia.
• Designed in 1989 by the late Sir Peter Shepheard, the Waterlily Court has been revamped to include 100 different varieties.
• Housing a state-of-the-art library and classrooms within its 46,000 square feet, the Grove is a new hub for education and administration.
• Longwood’s 1906 Restaurant has a revamped menu, a new private dining space and floor-to-ceiling windows that offer stunning views of the Main Fountain Garden. Redman likens the experience to “having lunch or dinner at the Versailles of America.”

The Longwood Gardens of today may be a far cry from what Pierre S. du Pont envisioned over a century ago, but it remains aligned with his philosophy. “The original combined technical innovation and the importance of land conservation,” says Weiss. “From the beginning, we asked ourselves, ‘How do we honor du Pont’s vision and take Longwood into the 21st century?’ It was an exciting and stimulating challenge.”

Redman, meanwhile, has doubled Longwood’s yearly attendance since taking over in 2006. The numbers are now around 1.6 million annually. And while he’s confident that all the changes will be embraced by the public, he’s also human. “When you do a project like this, it’s like, ‘OK, I’m throwing this big party. Is anybody actually going to show?’” he says.

Something tells us they will.

Visit longwoodgardens.org.

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