“Did you stroll by the grass that smells like burnt popcorn on the entrance?” This uncommon query seems on the welcome brochure of the brand new Calder Gardens in Philadelphia, opening this weekend on Benjamin Franklin Parkway throughout from the Rodin Museum. However on the official ribbon-cutting ceremony on 15 September, the extra identifiable scent on the trail in direction of the entrance door of the artwork house—don’t name it a museum!—was that of coriander.
“I used to be strolling by means of the gardens the opposite day, and it smelled like brown butter,” Alexander S. C. Rower, the president of the Calder Basis and a grandson of the artist, tells The Artwork Newspaper. “The smells of the backyard are meant as a part of the expertise.”
Nice odours don’t finish on the entrance door both. Contained in the gallery areas, there’s a noticeable scent of contemporary wooden. “It’s a multi-sensory expertise,” says Jason Frantzen, a senior companion of the structure agency Herzog & de Meuron, which designed the constructing. “The wooden scent has an affiliation with residence; there’s a home really feel.” He notes that there’s an inviting texture to each the wood and concrete surfaces inside. “The way in which the concrete is handled has its personal really feel and in addition a scent. There’s a haptic high quality to the challenge that goes from easy to tough,” he says. “And within the backyard, there’s the softness of the soil.”
Calder Gardens, Philadelphia Photograph: Iwan Baan. Artwork by Alexander Calder, © 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
It’s this type consideration to the sensorial expertise that makes Calder Gardens such a novel challenge—and a part of the explanation its creators reject the time period “museum”. Rower says that he didn’t wish to make a “mausoleum”, which he feels a whole lot of museums devoted to a single artist flip into. As an alternative, he imagined a uniquely contemplative house—one that doesn’t dictate how individuals expertise it. To that finish, there aren’t any wall labels explaining the artwork; the welcome brochure factors to Calder Gardens’ web site for any details about the artist and his work. (A deliberate audio information is not going to give any historic info both, however as a substitute embody commissions from musicians, poets and others responding to the house and the artwork inside.)
The entire challenge has the air of an understated cathedral, with its expansive gardens stuffed with native crops (designed by Piet Oudolf, of Excessive Line fame); a darkish, slender stairway resulting in an enormous sunlit house; small, chapel-like galleries usually containing a single, dramatically lit sculpture; and unmarked doorways opening to sudden inside gardens. There’s even an altar in a single nook devoted to works by Calder’s grandfather, father and mom—all beloved artists in their very own proper.
Not like many cathedrals, although, the construction is barely seen from the road; most of it’s underground, mysterious and cavelike. “The constructing was dug into the bottom, as a result of we didn’t need one other monument on the parkway, however one thing extra modest by way of scale—with a sequence of areas that may be found,” Frantzen says. “Every part is type of a shock. You don’t see what’s past it till you unravel the steps, and there’s a continuing motion as individuals go by means of the house.”
A stairwell at Calder Gardens, Philadelphia Photograph: Iwan Baan. Artwork by Alexander Calder, © 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
This sense of movement is one thing that the Philadelphia-born Calder would have appreciated because the inventor of the cellular. And like his famed sculptures that morph slowly over time, Calder Gardens is a dynamic house the place the 50 years of mobiles, stabiles, work and drawings on view change periodically—however and not using a set schedule. Some works will stay in place for years whereas others inevitably journey to exhibitions around the globe.
“However we may even rotate works throughout the constructing, exhibiting them in several environments. We don’t wish to be static,” says Rower, clarifying that this rotation isn’t a reverence to the artwork itself however quite “for guests’ real-time expertise. It’s about slowing down.” Rower, a day by day meditator himself, hopes that folks will go as far as to go away their telephones within the cubbies by the entrance desk.
Talking a standard language
Like a cathedral, Calder Gardens is a spot for each quiet contemplation and group gathering. The outside house is free and open to the general public in the course of the day; and there are plans for the 18,000 sq. ft of indoor house to host occasions like dance performances, movie screenings and readings all year long. “We wish engagement that’s truly partaking the group,” Rower says.
On the ribbon-cutting earlier this week, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro referred to as Calder Gardens “a vacation spot” encapsulating “the worth of artwork, historical past and group”. He added that the state was “proud to take a position $20m” into the $70m challenge, one that would carry individuals collectively throughout an “extraordinarily divisive time” within the US. “To me, there are nonetheless just some issues on the market that permit us to talk a standard language,” stated Shapiro, citing sports activities, meals and artwork as examples. “We now have a chance by means of the humanities to carry extra individuals collectively.”
Calder Gardens, Philadelphia Photograph: Tom Powel Imaging. Artwork by Alexander Calder, © 2025 Calder Basis, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Flanked by a busy parkway and a freeway, Calder Gardens is surprisingly serene. “The entire thought is getting individuals away from the town,” Frantzen says, “and creating an area the place individuals don’t hear the freeway—the again wall extends throughout the inexperienced and makes a sound barrier.” In fact the gardens, filled with greater than 250 totally different varieties for a complete of 37,000 crops throughout virtually two acres, additionally play an element.
Rower remembers Oudolf personally organising particular person crops within the backyard earlier than they have been planted. Despite the fact that the structure had already been determined and the potted crops laid out in accordance with Oudolf’s exacting plan, “he turned and moved each single pot”, Rower says, “sculpting in actual time”. Greater than anything at Calder Gardens, the flora morphing and altering with the seasons will manifest the brand new establishment’s embrace of change over time.
A celebration of the opening of Calder Gardens will happen on Saturday (20 September), with a free public parade alongside Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Titled Chaos and Kisses and led by the artist and musician Arto Lindsay, the parade—or “taking place”, as Rower prefers to name it—will characteristic performances by quite a few native artists and teams, culminating in a live performance by the Solar Ra Arkestra. Calder Gardens will formally open to the general public the next day (21 September)—the day of the brand new moon, in accordance with its welcome brochure.
Chaos and Kisses: A Grand Opening Parade for Calder Gardens will start at midday on 20 September at Love Park, Philadelphia. Calder Gardens, situated at 2100 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, will open to the general public on 21 September at 11am.
