Calder Gardens, opened on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is a museum dedicated to the work of sculptor Alexander Calder. The 18,000-square-foot museum is partially sunken into the landscape, creating an intimate setting that brings together art, architecture, and nature. Rather than a conventional museum, its galleries and gardens are designed as spaces for contemplation and discovery, with Calder’s work experienced alongside a diverse landscape of more than 250 plant species.

The overall design was developed by Jacques Herzog through a process of exchanging sketches, emails, and text messages with the project team to test gestural ideas.

Many concepts were explored, including a vertical stack of studios or exhibition spaces with connecting ramps.

The original building was renovated into the Art Museum at St Joseph's University

The Barnes Foundation is a complicated story with a happy ending. &nbsp;Albert C. Barnes took his fortune in pharmaceuticals and decided to buy art. &nbsp;With the help of a friend who was an artist he amassed one of the best and largest collection of European modernist works. &nbsp;He was not a fan of the art museums of the period, so he decided to create his own and created an educational foundation. &nbsp;He commissioned on of the best Philadelphia architects of the period, Paul Phillippe Cret to create a building in his arboretum in a suburb of Philadelphia. &nbsp;He had very strong ideas and very eclectic ones about how the art should be displayed and juxtaposed the paintings with medieval hardware. &nbsp;Typically an art museum filled with masterpieces carefully hangs them along white walls so that each work can be properly appreciated. &nbsp;He died tragically in a car accident in 1951 and the problems began. &nbsp;For the art lovers (of which Philadelphia has many) vsiting the collection became a logistical nightmare of securing an appointment months in advance to view it. &nbsp;For the residents of Lower Merion who preferred a quieter lifestyle. &nbsp;Philadelphia has a ‘museum mile’ along Benjamin Franklin Parkway that extends from the Art Museum to City Hall; the obvious solution would be to relocate the museum to this prime spot. &nbsp;Since it violated Barnes will, there was at least one contentious court case with a significant settlement. &nbsp;The result is a spectacular new building which recreates the eclectic galleries of the original museum. &nbsp;The former museum has been redesigned into the Frances Maguire Art Museum and St Joseph's University has a well funded art education and horticultural program.

Frances M. Maguire Art Museum at Saint Joseph’s University

Barnes Foundation

Calder Gardens

Philadelphia City Hall, completed in 1901, is the architectural and civic centerpiece of the city and one of the most ambitious municipal buildings ever constructed in the United States. Designed by John McArthur Jr. in the ornate Second Empire style, the building occupies the entirety of Centre Square, one of the five original squares in William Penn’s 1683 plan. With nearly 700 rooms and a footprint covering more than four acres, it was the largest municipal building in the country at the time of its completion and remains one of the world’s largest masonry structures built without a steel frame.The building’s most iconic feature is the 548‑foot tower, crowned by Alexander Milne Calder’s monumental bronze statue of William Penn, which stood as the tallest statue atop any building in the world for decades. Calder’s broader sculptural program—more than 250 figures integrated into the façade—transforms City Hall into a vast civic monument celebrating Philadelphia’s history, industry, and ideals. The building anchors the intersection of Broad and Market Streets, forming the symbolic and geographic heart of the city.Today, Philadelphia City Hall remains an active seat of government and a defining landmark of the city’s skyline. Its courtyards, observation deck, and richly ornamented exterior make it a focal point for public life, architectural tourism, and the enduring legacy of Penn’s original plan.

Philadelphia City Hall

Logan Circle—originally Northwest Square in William Penn’s 1683 plan—is one of Philadelphia’s five original public squares and a major civic landmark along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Renamed in the early 19th century for James Logan, colonial statesman and secretary to William Penn, the square evolved from a utilitarian commons into a grand, Beaux‑Arts civic space during the Parkway’s construction in the 1910s and 1920s.The circle’s defining feature is the Swann Memorial Fountain (1924), designed by sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder and architect Wilson Eyre. The fountain’s allegorical figures—representing the Delaware, Schuylkill, and Wissahickon waterways—anchor the circular plaza and frame views toward the Philadelphia Museum of Art and City Hall. Surrounding institutions, including the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Franklin Institute, reinforce the square’s role as the cultural heart of the Parkway.Today, Logan Circle functions as both a monumental civic space and a neighborhood park, hosting festivals, public art installations, and everyday recreation. Its blend of historic planning, Beaux‑Arts design, and cultural institutions makes it one of Philadelphia’s most iconic urban landscapes.

Logan Circle (Philadelphia)

The General Plan of the Fairmount Parkway (now the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) in Philadelphia was finalized in 1917 by French landscape architect Jacques Gréber. Inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Beaux-Arts design created a grand diagonal link from Philadelphia City Hall to the Philadelphia Museum of Art at Fairmount Park.

Calder Gardens

Images

Images

2025 - Opened

2025 - Opened - Drawings and documents

HISTORIC MAPS