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Originally located within a greenhouse on the western end of Longwood Gardens’ 4.5-acre conservatory complex, this 2,000-square-foot garden was designed by Roberto Burle Marx. Historically, the garden measured 40 by 50 feet, and was located on the former Desert House, many plants of which were incorporated into the Silver Garden. To create the Cascade Garden, Burle Marx collaborated with longtime friend and protégé Conrad Hamerman. The garden opened to the public in 1993, and permanently closed in 2021. 

Following master planning efforts (2017-2024) that resulted in the transformation of seventeen acres in the campus’ core, now known as “Longwood Reimagined,” the Burle Marx garden was methodically documented and analyzed, relocated, and reconstructed in a new 3,800-square-foot modernist glasshouse designed by Weiss/Manfredi architects with Reed Hilderbrand landscape architects (2024). 

In its relocated position, the Cascade Garden serves as the northern terminus of a new grove positioned between the Main Conservatory and the West Conservatory. Shaded by an allée of ginkgo trees, this outdoor courtyard, dubbed, the Central Grove, leads to the Cascade Garden’s elevated entrance whose arrival is heightened with an arcing path that slopes upward, delivering visitors to the glasshouse’s primary entrance. Prior to exiting the glasshouse, a series of interpretive panels tell the story of the garden’s creation, Burle Marx, and its relocation and reconstruction. Existing at street level, the oval plaza between the elevated walkway and the grove is paved in Portuguese cobble stones, reminiscent of other Burle Marx projects like Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro. 

Today, the garden is as Burle Marx had designed it, resembling a South American rain forest, with its dense ensemble of tropical plants, that includes palms, philodendrons, and more than 100 species of bromeliads. Approximately 180 plants growing in the former garden were reestablished in the reconstructed garden, the centerpiece of the new glasshouse with its larger footprint and increased height. Navigated by a curvilinear path and animated by several waterfalls that cascade into distinct pools, the garden includes vertical walls and planting beds of local schist, quartz, and slate. The new glasshouse includes updated mechanical systems to improve climate control and sustainability.