Calder Gardens launches this September to an architectural design by Herzog & de Meuron, and panorama and gardens by Piet Oudolf. Designed to current a rotating show of key items from influential American artist Alexander Calder, immersed in flowering nature, the mission, curated by the Calder Basis, is positioned throughout the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Downtown Philadelphia, the place the artist was born.
(Picture credit score: Images: Iwan Baan / Artworks by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Enter Calder Gardens
The brand new Philadelphia establishment will throw open its doorways to the general public on Sunday, 21 September 2025. The brand new cultural hotspot brings collectively artwork, structure and nature in a single expertise. Oudolf’s naturalistic gardens and meadows of wildflowers merge effortlessly with Herzog and de Meuron’s curved constructing volumes, each echoing of their means Calder’s masterpieces, which guests are invited to expertise up shut and private.
The opening celebrations embody a free public parade by artist, composer and musician Arto Lindsay – an open invitation for Philly residents and past to return in and discover the grounds and new museum.
‘Calder Gardens is a rare area, and in becoming a member of the opposite cultural treasures alongside the Parkway – together with the Barnes, the Rodin Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork – it’ll additional solidify Philadelphia’s place as one of many world’s most fun cities wherein to expertise, and be reworked by, artwork,’ says Marsha Perelman, President of the Trustees of Calder Gardens.
(Picture credit score: Images: Iwan Baan / Artworks by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Introducing ‘Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes by Jacques Herzog’
To mark the event, Hauser & Wirth Publishers is launching Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes by Jacques Herzog this winter. The luxurious, large-format tome presents insights into the event of architect and studio co-founder Jacques Herzog’s pondering and course of for Calder Gardens by means of drawings, sketches, collages and mannequin pictures. The excerpt that follows, by Herzog, prefaces the e book and permits a glimpse into the mission and its inventive method.
Preliminary sketches and drawings of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel)
Jacques Herzog on Calder Gardens
‘This was a really uncommon mission for an architect as a result of the consumer didn’t give us a predetermined temporary or funds, nor even a transparent website within the standard sense with limiting top or zoning restrictions. The mission didn’t have a reputation in that early part both. We met Alexander S C ‘Sandy’ Rower, president of the Calder Basis, and Joseph Neubauer, then chair of the Barnes Basis board of trustees, in Basel again in 2020 and nearly instantly and with out prejudice jumped into speaking collectively. About what the mission could possibly be, and in addition what it shouldn’t be. I keep in mind that second properly as a result of there was a form of innocence and fragility across the mission.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
It was so completely different and open in comparison with all different commissions I’ve ever labored on. This new website for Calder in Philadelphia shouldn’t freeze a picture that guests might need when pondering of Calder’s work however – fairly the alternative – it ought to enable for the artistic endeavors to specific their unimaginable range and ambiguity inside quite a few completely different spatial contexts. Due to this fact, it shouldn’t be like a museum, nor a Schaulager, and never an artwork gallery. So what then?
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
I began to work on the design in early 2020, simply because the Covid pandemic started. I instantly turned conscious that engaged on this mission can be extra like engaged on an art work, since nobody would ever inform me what to do once I bought up within the morning. I considered what the mission could possibly be. The bodily isolation from different individuals inside and out of doors our places of work throughout these early days of the pandemic enhanced my notion of working alone with out the same old alternate with a completely geared up mission workforce. On account of these extraordinary situations, I began very early within the course of to provide many sketches and drawings and notes with attainable pointers for my very own pondering.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
Such paperwork have at all times been the primary instrument in my architectural apply, however the sheer quantity and the precise character of the Calder sketches is extraordinary. The drawings specific uncertainty and doubt, and in addition enthusiasm in moments once they made me imagine I used to be reaching a brand new step find out what the architectural and sculptural id of the mission was going to be.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
Because the design advanced, I more and more labored with a small workforce, led by Jason Frantzen, who helped form the mission by means of their research; in a while, they translated fashions, sketches and drawings into correct plan paperwork for our native architects in Philadelphia. Throughout the entire course of, we remained in an intense and fruitful dialogue with our consumer, represented primarily by Sandy and Joe. This alternate was very particular, too – very completely different from different initiatives, since I at all times laid my explorations out within the open, together with the trial-and-error moments. They accepted these moments of doubt and accepted the trail that finally led to the structure we have been all on the lookout for.’
Preliminary visualisation of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Picture credit score: Images: © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
Calder Gardens: the finished constructing
Proper from the beginning of the mission, the Calder Basis offered Herzog and de Meuron with a problem: to create a museum like no different, an area that’s ‘intimate and ever-changing’ and a spot that creates a dialogue between artwork and structure, nature and creativity. The mission was developed on a comparatively flat piece of land, and the architects drew on Calder staples: ‘type, color, and motion,’ the architects write.
‘On this distinctive fee in Philadelphia – from the positioning, to the open temporary, to our design course of – I targeted on area over type, main me to discover below-grade areas and uncover the defining areas of the construction,’ says Jacques Herzog. ‘Calder Gardens embodies a form of ‘no-design’ structure, permitting the artistic endeavors to specific their range and ambiguity throughout quite a few completely different spatial contexts. It’s a spot the place you’ll be able to sit, wander, and observe, whether or not it’s nature or artwork, with the convenience one has when one sits underneath a tree.’
(Picture credit score: Images: Iwan Baan / Artworks by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
The Swiss structure apply responded to their temporary by crafting a constructing composed of a collection of kinds and geometries. A tapered metallic type gently dominates and displays its stay, inexperienced environment, delineating the positioning. In entrance of it, a folded metallic cover indicators, and covers, the primary entrance. There’s a central, disk-like plaza simply outdoors of it, resulting in the ‘Sunken Backyard’ towards the east and the ‘Vestige Backyard’ to the west – offering area for outside sculpture, all surrounded by Oudolf’s some 250 styles of crops and over 37,000 perennials.
Low, elongated volumes and using timber from some angles assist the advanced to stay unassuming and comparatively unobtrusive inside its environment. The darkish timber surfaces additionally present a nod to Calder’s personal, black-painted, humble, Connecticut barns.
Inside, concrete surfaces and beams mark completely different areas and galleries, designed to accommodate Calder’s works, which vary in scale. Strategically positioned giant openings join with the outside and produce pure mild into the inside.
(Picture credit score: Images: Iwan Baan / Artworks by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
‘Whereas I’ve admired Alexander Calder for many years, I by no means imagined receiving such a exceptional alternative to interact his work instantly,’ says Piet Oudolf. ‘At Calder Gardens, I’ve designed a panorama that responds not solely to the precise situations of the positioning however to Calder’s highly effective embrace of motion and alter as defining parts of his artwork. Right here in Philadelphia, Calder’s sculptures will probably be positioned in dialogue with gardens which might be consistently evolving. These artworks and the crops I’ve chosen and positioned, will probably be shifting in time at completely different speeds, in relationship to 1 one other and the seasons, for a few years to return. I sit up for watching this unfold.’
Calder Gardens opens on 21 September, caldergardens.org. ‘Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes’ by Jacques Herzog (Hauser & Wirth) is launched on 21 October, hauserwirth.com, herzogdemeuron.com
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