Longwood Gardens Announces Designing Change: Landscape Continuity in an Age of Uncertainty Symposium 

Press Release

KENNETT SQUARE, PA –Longwood Gardens today announced it will host Designing Change: Landscape Continuity in an Age of Uncertainty, a thought-provoking symposium exploring the urgent questions shaping the future of design and preservation in a time of global transformation. The symposium, slated for October 15-16 at Longwood, brings together internationally recognized landscape architects, designers, ecologists, and preservationists to engage in deep dialogue and bold visioning.

Curated by Anita Berrizbeitia, Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Designing Change invites professionals at the forefront of design and conservation to examine new frameworks for continuity—both cultural and ecological—through the lens of adaptation to anticipated design.

At the heart of the symposium is the extraordinary preservation and reconstruction of Longwood’s Cascade Garden, a modernist masterwork by acclaimed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. The project offers a compelling case study in the evolving ethics of preservation and authenticity.

“At Longwood Gardens, we honor the legacy of landscape design while thoughtfully guiding its future,” said Paul B. Redman, President and CEO of Longwood Gardens. “In reimagining 17 acres of our Gardens, we confronted an unprecedented and complex challenge: how to preserve the last intact Roberto Burle Marx garden in North America. Unlike historic architecture, living landscapes have no set preservation standards—so we convened leading experts to define a new path. This symposium builds on that work, continuing an essential dialogue on how to preserve, evolve, and sustain living landscapes for the future.”

Over two dynamic days, participants will engage with a global roster of award-winning speakers in keynote talks, panel discussions, and intimate sessions. The event opens with keynote presentations on Longwood Reimagined and the Reconstruction of the Cascade Garden featuring Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi of WEISS/MANFREDI and Kristin Frederickson and Eric Kramer of Reed Hilderbrand. A cocktail reception and dinner will follow.

The symposium continues Thursday, October 16, with sessions designed to spark critical thinking and discussion. Kongjian Yu, Ph.D., internationally acclaimed for his “Sponge City” concept, will deliver a featured talk on the intersection of ecology and urban planning. Additional programming includes “The Expanded Field of Preservation,” a session chaired by Charles Birnbaum of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, and a “Biocultural Conservation” panel chaired by John Beardsley of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Prize. The evening concludes with a keynote on “The Future of Historic Estate Landscapes,” followed by dinner and a private illuminated fountain show.

Speakers include:
•    Kongjian Yu, Ph.D., Founder of Turenscape; Professor, Peking University 
•    Kristin Frederickson and Eric Kramer, Principals, Reed Hilderbrand
•    Steven Heyde and Sylvie Van Damme, Ph.D., Co-authors, The Future of Estate Landscapes in Europe
•    Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, Principals, WEISS/MANFREDI
•    Additional leaders from institutions including Harvard GSD, Studio Zewde, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, and more

“This is a moment for our field to reflect, recalibrate, and reimagine,” said Berrizbeitia, who served on the advisory group for the preservation of the Cascade Garden. “We’re convening the thinkers and practitioners who are reshaping what preservation means in a rapidly changing world—and doing so in a setting where legacy and innovation live side by side.”

Registration is open until September 30, 2025. An early registration fee of $289 is available through August 15; after that, the fee is $329. For more information and to register, visit designingchange.longwoodgardens.org.

About Longwood Gardens 

Longwood Gardens is one of the great gardens of the world, encompassing 1,100 acres of gardens, woodlands, meadows, fountains, a 10,010-pipe Aeolian organ, and grand conservatories. Longwood continues the mission set forth by founder Pierre S. du Pont to bring joy and inspiration to all through the beauty of nature, conservation, and learning. As part of its commitment to conservation, in 2024 Longwood acquired the 505-acre Longwood at Granogue, a cultural landscape in nearby Wilmington, Delaware. Longwood’s foremost influence on American horticulture has been through its education programs, in keeping with Mr. du Pont’s desire to establish “a school where students and others may receive instruction in the arts of horticulture and floriculture.” Since 1958, thousands of students from all over the world have participated in one or more of Longwood’s intensive programs, ranging from School & Youth Programs, which educates 45,000 students both online and in person each year, to the two-year Professional Horticulture Program to the Longwood Fellows Program. Graduates have gone on to leadership roles in many of the country’s top horticultural institutions. For more information, visit longwoodgardens.org.