Philadelphia's New Calder Gardens Celebrates the Iconic Sculptor

In Philadelphia, a new kind of art space takes root. Calder Gardens opens September 21, 2025, on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Aerial view of a city skyline featuring modern skyscrapers, greenery along the streets, and historical buildings in the foreground.

It’s not quite a museum, more a sanctuary and garden, with a deep appreciation of the groundbreaking sculptor, Alexander Calder, who was born in the city.

Interior view of a modern building featuring a woman standing on a balcony overlooking an art installation, with wooden and concrete structural elements visible.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron with landscape by Piet Oudolf, the 1.8-acre site blends naturalistic gardens of more than 250 plant varieties with galleries built into the earth.

Interior of a modern building featuring wooden walls and ceiling, with a minimalist black art installation on the white wall.

The shape of the space is made up of subtle metal volumes, sunken rooms, reflective surfaces, with shifting views.

Modern art gallery interior featuring abstract sculptures and installations, including a large red structure and black hanging mobile against a minimalistic backdrop.

At its heart are the works of Alexander Calder. Mobiles that move, stabiles that anchor, pieces both familiar and rare.

They rotate through the spaces so visitors see them in a new light with each visit. The experience is designed to stir quiet reflection not lecture. There are no wall labels, no formal script. Just art and air and the seasons passing.

Calder Gardens is more abstract in format than many museums or public spaces.

It invites visitors to wander, watch the light shift, connect with art by letting space breathe around it. With art that literally moves with the breeze, that feels like a fitting setting.

A scenic view of a modern urban park featuring greenery and paths, surrounded by tall buildings in the background.

Calder Gardens is not a conventional museum. From the beginning the client wanted a space that would provide a totally new, intimate and ever-changing encounter with the work of Alexander Calder.

-Herzog & de Meuron

Aerial view of a modern park with walking paths and greenery, surrounded by tall skyscrapers in a city skyline.

Piet Oudolf’s planting design gives the space its heartbeat.

Aerial view of a park with unique landscaping and modern structures, adjacent to a busy road and a large, historically styled building illuminated at night.

Known for his wild yet precise gardens, Oudolf has filled the site with native perennials and grasses that change in color and texture throughout the year.