By Gabbie Burton
Contributing Writer

On the eve of the official opening of its long-awaited Longwood Reimagined: A New Garden Experience on Nov. 22, Longwood Gardens held a press preview tour for the media on Oct. 22 that gave an overview of the 17-acre, $250 million project – including its 32,000 square-foot glasshouse as the new West Conservatory – that has been 14 years in the making.

The renovations also include the relocation for the 1906 restaurant and bar, a new bonsai courtyard, a renovated water lily court, a new administrative building, a relocation of the Cascade Garden and new walkways.

Opening remarks before touring the renovations included principals from architecture firm WEISS/MANFREDI and landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, who were behind the projects and guided the tours around the new facilities. 

“We believe that gardens are places of transformation and revelation that both reflect and create the cultures in which we live, and that can tie people to place across generations,” said Kristin Frederickson of Reed Hilderbrand. “Building on these historic patterns, we extended a system of broad promenades and established a new framework for movement and rest on the historic ridge that now allows visitors to experience it in new and exciting ways.” 

The tour began at the Grove, Longwood Gardens’ new “beehive” education and administrative building. Just outside the building is the new bonsai courtyard, expanding on the original collection Longwood currently has. 

Adjacent to the courtyard is the main feature of Longwood Reimagined: the new West Conservatory. Made with an estimated 2,000 pieces of glass and designed to look as though its floating on water, the conservatory is artfully designed to house a Mediterranean garden inside. 

“The sheet of water here with the conservatory floats on extends through the walls of the conservatory and becomes a pervasive sheet of water that defines three islands of planting,” said Doug Reed of Reed Hilderbrand. 

Plants inside the conservatory included iconic Mediterranean plants such as the Italian Cypress, Bay Laurel, Bismark Palm and Acacia. The conservatory was designed to reflect nature, both within and surrounding the structure using the elements of water, plants and the sky. The conservatory will feature hanging plants meant to invoke imagery of clouds when visitors look up through the clear ceiling towards the sky. Additionally, instead of post and beam structure, the supports for the conservatory have been designed to resemble trees with branches curving out to maintain the structure.

“Look at the way trees support themselves,” said Marion Weiss of WEISS/MANFREDI. “It’s not posts and beam, which is traditional architecture, but a column and branching and so this is really the branching that is enabling us to actually avoid columns where you would expect them.”

The structure was designed to be asymmetrical and “winding” in order to invoke the natural landscapes of the Brandywine Valley surrounding Longwood. 

“This is more inspired by the wandering topography that we loved at the meadows right over there and that is inspiring that you never see straight paths. You never see a straight line,” said Weiss. “If you see the dipping of this edge and this edge, it’s using the tricks of perspectival convergence to make you feel when you're walking along these edges that it’s infinitely greater.” 

The new conservatory also took sustainability into account as the building stores rainwater to use for the plants and the glass allows for 100 percent of light available to get in the structure and right to the plants. 

Beyond the conservatory, renovations included the new location of the 1906 restaurant which now overlooks the main water fountain court. The restaurant features details such as reclaimed wood from the gardens crafted into tables with help from the Challenge Program in Wilmington, Del. -- a non-profit that helps youth who face barriers to employment. 

The Longwood Reimagined project also included the relocation of the Cascade Garden, which will now have its own 3,800 square foot housing located near the West Conservatory for the garden to continue to grow. Originally opened in 1993, the Cascade Garden is the only garden designed by acclaimed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx in North America. The relocation of the garden to its new home is historic as a relocation and preservation of a garden has never been done before in this way. 

The renovations offer fresh-eyed Longwood visitors even more of the celebrated gardens to take in but for the frequent visitors, the additions and rejuvenations give regulars a new experience at one of their most beloved local attractions.  

“This gives people more opportunity to experience plant design and history,” said Reed. “It’s new but it’s very much what Longwood’s mission always is.” 

Frederickson highlighted the increased flow for visitors to walk and take in the experience in new ways. 

“You can move more and further and see the gardens in different and revelatory ways,” Frederickson said. “Even locals can find something new.” 

Although Longwood Reimagined includes obvious new additions to the gardens, the very nature of gardens is ever changing and there is always something new. As Weiss pointed out, plants will forever keep growing and evolving, giving those both new and old to Longwood a fresh experience. 

“While architecture might look very shiny and new at the moment, landscapes take time,” Weiss said. 

To learn more about Reimagined 2024: A New Garden Experience, visit www.longwoodgardens.org/new-garden-experience.

To contact Contributing Writer Gabbie Burton, email [email protected].