What Exactly Is Calder Gardens?

"PHILADELPHIA - It's "not a museum," and, according to its architects, it's "not a building." But this cool subterranean lair on the historic Benjamin Franklin Parkway now houses a shifting collection of floating mobiles and grand "stabiles" by the modernist master Alexander Calder. Welcome to Calder Gardens. In stark contrast to the soaring staircase of the recently rebranded Philadelphia Art Museum, the newest addition to Philadelphia's "Museum Mile" is a gentle slice into the earth."

"Set back from pathways that wind through 37,000 perennial flower buds and saplings, a structure is sheathed in a giant mirror that bounces the light from the parkway back to the public. But do Philadelphians see themselves in the reflection? Once inside and past the ticket desk, visitors are beckoned down a large set of stairs into the first of many delightful architectural riddles. Long benches are arranged like a stadium, but a blank wall blocks your view."

"A promise of open space invites you down a few more steps. You're rewarded with a vista into the first gaping hall, a delicate mobile suspended overhead and an arching "stabile" reaching up underneath. To see them up close, you must descend into a pitch-black, floor-lit tunnel that may have inspired WHYY reporter Peter Crimmins to call it an architectural "haunted house.""

Calder Gardens sits beneath the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, presenting Alexander Calder's mobiles and stabiles in a deliberately nontraditional subterranean setting. The project required over a decade of planning and $100 million, bringing together Herzog & de Meuron and garden designer Piet Oudolf. The building is set among 37,000 perennials and saplings and is clad in a giant mirror that reflects the parkway. Interior architecture stages staged reveals: stadium-like benches, blocked sightlines, descending staircases, and a pitch-black, floor-lit tunnel that opens into expansive halls. The design emphasizes experiential movement, landscape integration, and a playful interrogation of public reflection.

Read at Hyperallergic