Rendering for the West Conservatory at Longwood Gardens Courtesy of Weiss/Manfredi with Reed Hilderbrand for Longwood Gardens
A lush cascade garden that the Brazilian landscape architect and artist Roberto Burle Marx devised to complement a conservatory at Longwood Gardens one of the few permanent examples of his work in the US will undergo a $6.5m reconstruction. The work is part of a $250m project that aims to revitalise the sprawling botanical garden and historical Peirce-du Pont family estate in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.
The garden consists of more than 100 hundred rare South American plants, vertical rock walls, waterfalls and reflecting pools, which will be relocated under a stand-alone custom-designed glasshouse. It is “a classic Burle Marx garden, embedded with the story of the rainforest and the plants that he was passionate about”, says Paul Redman, the president and chief executive of Longwood.