Calder Gardens starts this September with an architectural design by Herzog & de Meuron as well as the landscape and gardens of Piet Oudolf. The project curated by the Calder Foundation was in Benjamin Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia, where the artist was born.
(Photo credit: Photography: Iwan Baan / works of art by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Enter Calder Gardens
The new institution in Philadelphia will open its doors to the public on Sunday, September 21, 2025. The new cultural hotspot brings art, architecture and nature together in a single experience. Oudolf's naturalistic gardens and meadows of wildflowers effortlessly merge with Duke and de Meuron's bent components, both of which are repeated in their way, how Calder's masterpieces, which are invited to the visitors, are experienced up close.
The opening celebrations include a free public parade of the artist, composer and musician Arto Lindsay – an open invitation for the residents of Philly and beyond to explore the site and the new museum.
“Calder Gardens is an extraordinary space, and by merging the other cultural treasures along the parkway – including the Barnes, the Rodin Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art -, it will continue to consolidate the position of Philadelphia than to experience one of the world's most exciting cities and to learn and change from Calder Gardens,” says Marsha Perelman, President of The Trustees of The Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustnes of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees of the Trustees by Calder.
(Photo credit: Photography: Iwan Baan / works of art by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
Introduction “Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes of Jacques Herzog”
Hauser & Wirth publishers starts on this occasion Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes by Jacques Herzog this winter. The luxurious Tome with a large format offers insights into the development and process of the architects and studio co-founder Jacques Duke and process for calder gardens through drawings, sketches, collages and model photography. The following extract, which follows by Herzog, presents the book and enables an insight into the project and its creative approach.
Preliminary sketches and drawings by Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel)
Jacques Duke on Calder Gardens
“This was a very unusual project for an architect, since the customer did not give us a given letter or a budget or even a clear location in the conventional sense with limited height or restrictions. Foundation, in Basel in 2020 and almost immediately and without prejudices, jumped together.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
It was so different and open compared to all other commissions I have ever worked on. This new website for Calder in Philadelphia should not freeze a picture that visitor may have if you think about Calder's work, but – on the contrary – it should enable the works of art to express their incredible diversity and ambiguity in numerous different spatial contexts. Therefore, it should be neither like a museum nor a Wölfer or a art gallery. So what then?
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
I started working on the design in early 2020, just like the Covid pandemic began. I immediately realized that working on this project would be more like working on a work of art, since nobody would ever tell me what to do when I got up in the morning. I thought about what the project could be. The physical isolation of other people inside and outside of our offices in these early days of pandemic increased my perception to work with a fully equipped project team alone without the usual exchange. As a result of these extraordinary conditions, I started creating many sketches and drawings and notes with possible guidelines for my own thinking very early.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
Such documents have always been the main instrument in my architectural practice, but the sheer quantity and the specific character of the Calder sketches are extraordinary. The drawings express uncertainty and doubts and delighted in moments when they believed me that I took a new step to find out what the architectural and sculptural identity of the project would be.
Preliminary sketch of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
While the design developed, I increasingly worked with a small team, led by Jason Franzen, who designed the project through her studies. Later they translated models, sketches and drawings into suitable pland documents for our local architects in Philadelphia. During the entire process, we remained in an intensive and fertile dialogue with our client, which was mainly represented by Sandy and Joe. This exchange was also a very special ganz different from other projects, since I have always put my explorations outdoors, including the moments with attempt and errors. They accepted these moments of doubt and accepted the path that finally led to the architecture that we were all looking for. '
Preliminary visualization of Calder Gardens by Jacques Herzog
(Image Credit: Photography: © Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel •)
Calder Gardens: The closed building
From the beginning of the project, the Calder Foundation Herzog and de Meuron presented a challenge: a museum like no other, a space that “changes intimate and constantly changing” and a place that creates a dialogue between art and architecture, nature and creativity. The project was developed in a relatively flat piece of land, and the architects relied on Calder Staples: shape, color and movement, the architects write.
“In this unique commission in Philadelphia – from the website to the open letter to our design process – I concentrated on the room about the form to explore areas below the class and to discover the defining rooms of the structure,” says Jacques Herzog. 'Calder Gardens embodies a kind of “non -design” architecture, so that the works of art can express their diversity and ambiguity in numerous different spatial contexts. It is a place where you can sit, hike and observe, be it nature or art, with the lightness you have when you sit under a tree. '
(Photo credit: Photography: Iwan Baan / works of art by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
The Swiss architecture practice reacted to her letter by producing a building from a series of shapes and geometries. A rejuvenating metal form gently dominates and reflects its living, green environment and describes the location. Before this case, a folded metal baldachin and covers signal the main entrance. There is a central, disc -like place directly outside of it, which leads to the “sunken garden” towards the east and the “remaining garden” in the west.
Low, elongated volumes and the use of wood from a few angles help the complex, modest in its surroundings and to remain relatively inconspicuous. The dark wooden surfaces also indicate Calder's own black-painted, modest, connectic tanks.
Inside, concrete surfaces and beams mark different areas and galleries that were designed for the works of Calder and that are sufficient in scale. Strategically placed large openings combine with nature and bring natural light into the interior.
(Photo credit: Photography: Iwan Baan / works of art by Alexander Calder / Copyiright 2025 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)
“While I admired Alexander Calder for decades, I have never imagined getting such a remarkable opportunity to hire his work directly,” says Piet Oudolf. 'In Calder Gardens I have designed a landscape that not only reacts to the specific conditions of the site, but also to Calder's powerful hug and change as a definition of elements of his art. Here in Philadelphia the sculptures of Calder are placed in dialogue with gardens that are constantly evolving. These works of art and the plants that I have selected and placed will move at different speeds for many years at different speeds and the seasons. I look forward to seeing this. '
Calder Gardens opens on September 21 Caldergarden's.org. “Calder Gardens: Sketches & Notes” by Jacques Herzog (Hauser & Wirth) will be released on October 21st. Hauserwirth.comPresent Herzogdemeuron.com
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