Piet Oudolf is a celebrated Dutch garden designer. A leading figure of the New Perennial movement —an avant garde planting style that mimics natural botanical communities—Oudolf has gained international acclaim for his distinctive approach, which he brought to high-profile commissions such as New York’s High Line. 

At Calder Gardens—a new art institution dedicated to the late modernist sculptor Alexander Calder—Oudolf’s plantings cover a subterranean gallery designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, creating a meadow-like sanctuary in downtown Philadelphia, the artist’s birthplace. 

Planted with 37,000 perennials from a palette of more than 195 varieties, the gardens will transform throughout the seasons, in dialogue with a rotating selection of artworks spanning Calder’s career. A complex, dense ecological patchwork, the landscape reflects Oudolf’s deep consideration for the composition of his gardens—not only in the present, but as they develop over time.