Main Fountain Garden
Longwood Gardens, PA
The Main Fountain Garden at Longwood is the historic heart of one of America’s most celebrated public gardens. Constructed by Pierre du Pont in the 1930s, it was inspired by the great water gardens of Renaissance Europe. Eighty years after its opening, the garden’s fountain systems had multiple leaks, the Italianate stonework was in disrepair and parts of the garden were closed to the public.
The project led by Beyer Blinder Belle delivered a comprehensive rehabilitation of the five-acre Main Fountain Garden. The replacement of the buried hydraulics systems necessitated the dismantling of the central core of the historic garden. Five thousand pieces of ornamental limestone were repaired, the fountain systems replaced and new pathways and a contemporary Grotto created. The original 1930’s pumproom was decommissioned and restored as the Pumphouse Museum. A geothermal heat pump system provides the heating and cooling requirements of the interior spaces. Miriam Kelly led the design and construction administration of the historic garden restoration and new Grotto.
Archival research into the garden’s original design was critical to its reinterpretation. The project enables a multi-layered reading of the garden that balances the historic and contemporary. New architectural interventions are carefully integrated and the complex subterranean engineering systems are entirely hidden, retaining the historic character of the garden familiar to generations of Longwood’s visitors.
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Longwood Gardens, Inc.
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Pierre du Pont, 1936
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Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners LLP
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West 8
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5 acres
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2012 - 2017
Full Design Services
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$90 million
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Grand Jury Award, Philadelphia Preservation Alliance, 2018.
Honor Award in General Design, American Society of Landscape Architects, 2018.
Trumbauer Award, Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, 2018
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Daniel Traub
John Bartelstone
L. Carrozzino Courtesy of Longwood Gardens
“Re-awakening the Main Fountain Garden is an exercise in creativity, thoughtfulness and responsibility.”
Watch an overview of the Main Fountain Garden project