Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art Master Plan
Project Stats
- Location
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
- Size
Inner Campus: 18 acres
Outer Campus: 369 acres
- Role
Space Programming
Master Planning
Courtyard Design Architect
- Market
- Expertise
Good natured
The Brandywine Conservancy and Museum of Art (BCMA) is a unique institution that combines a land conservancy with a premier art museum. The museum itself focuses on artists of the Brandywine River region, particularly the Wyeth family of artists. Due to growth in the organization — from the museum’s collection to its exhibitions program and visitor attendance — a strategy was needed to create a more unified experience for guests and to pave the way for future growth.
In partnership with OLIN providing landscape architecture expretise, the team led the development of a comprehensive master plan for BCMA’s Inner Campus and nearby properties located in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. The plan provides a vision for the future that enhances the natural beauty of its properties, much of it on conserved land, while providing inspiring spaces in which to view its renowned collection of American art.
Reconnect to nature
The connection between art and nature is an integral theme in the project team’s approach to design. The BCMA faced many issues and constraints, including a disconnected campus, aging building and site infrastructure, increased instances of flooding from the Brandywine River, and growing traffic on US Route 1. The museum also wanted to facilitate a more holistic visitor experience.
The four-phase master plan addresses these issues with updated and expanded gallery, event, and back-of-house spaces; improved vehicular circulation and parking; additional visitor amenities as well as enhanced landscaped spaces and nature trails emphasizing native plants that enhanced connections among BCMA’s properties.
A welcoming environment
One of the first master plan projects to be implemented was a renovation and expansion of the Museum of Art’s outdoor courtyard, which had been damaged during flooding from Hurricane Ida. The design team reimagined the courtyard as a more open, welcoming, and accessible space that is beautiful and multifunctional. As the main arrival point for visitors to the inner campus, the courtyard serves as an important intermediary space between the museum, the experience of the Brandywine River, and its environment, fulfilling its key mission of connecting people, art, and nature.
Image credit: OLIN
In addition to creating a fresh and more engaging visitor experience, an important goal of the project was to improve the Brandywine’s ability to accommodate a wider range of program, events, and rentals. The courtyard’s walls and canopies are designed to respect the historic mill building and reference the local vernacular of stone walls, brick paving, and gabled roofs, while creating a design that is contemporary in its expression.
This project was completed by Cooper Robertson prior to its acquisition by Corgan in November 2025.
Image credit: OLIN
