ceiling with design
Subject: Longwood Gardens-24-01, Location: Kennett Square, PA, Architect: Weiss Manfredi Architects

This Expansive Restaurant Is Surrounded By Stunning Horticulture

Best of Year Winner for Fine Dining

1906 at Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

The 250-seat, 6,100-square-foot restaurant—named for the year Pierre S. du Pont bought the property that would become the fabled horticultural campus in which it sits—was created as part of weiss/manfredi architecture/landscape/urbanism’s expansion of Longwood’s public spaces. Tucked behind a retaining wall and beneath the main conservatory terrace, the venue is “hidden in plain sight”: an airy, vaulted space overlooking the fountain garden through floor-to-ceiling arched windows. Antique-bronze mirrors on the opposite side of the room reflect the view, while the ceiling’s basketweave pattern echoes the arcing water jets outside. Other garden nods include sage-green banquettes, custom rugs evoking the tree canopy, and a site-specific mural depicting morning light on nearby meadows.


Best of Year 2025 Awards

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PROJECT TEAM: MARION WEISS; MICHAEL MANFREDI; TODD HOEHN; TOMOKO AKIBA; ANDREW RUGGLES

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