The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art is excited to announce an approximately $100 million project that will result in a transformation and expansion of the organization’s 15-acre campus. The project includes construction of a 40,000 square-foot new museum building designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates—the architect’s first museum building in the U.S.—along with significant renovations to the Brandywine Museum of Art’s beloved historic Mill building. Landscape design for the expanded campus will be led by Field Operations and will include a remarkable expansion of the current Chadds Ford campus into a 325-acre public preserve and garden featuring ten miles of trails bookended by the two museum buildings. When completed, the new trails will create a loop through the changing landscape between both museum buildings, as well as the original studios of N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth.
As of May 2026, the Brandywine has raised nearly 50% of the estimated project costs, reflecting strong early support from donors committed to the institution’s vision for American art and nature. Construction is planned to begin in Spring 2027, with the new building opening scheduled for Fall 2029.
“Since our founding in 1967, our vision has been to ‘preserve the land that inspired so many artists,’” said Virginia Logan, The Frolic Weymouth Executive Director and C.E.O. of Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art. “As we approach our 60th anniversary, this campaign fulfills that founding vision at a transformative scale. We're creating an experience of quiet elegance where light-filled spaces connect you to the surrounding preserve—where visitors move from contemplating American art in our galleries to walking the landscapes that inspired it, understanding through this journey how art, nature, and conservation exist in enduring harmony.”
One Museum, Two Buildings
The Brandywine’s new museum building, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, in association with Schwartz/Silver Architects Inc., is envisioned as a series of four, wood-clad pavilions running along a central axis, with long, low vernacular roofs that peak in asymmetric profiles. Visitors will enter on the southeast side of the building’s upper level and emerge into a light-filled hall with views out to a nature preserve on three sides. From there, visitors can explore two large galleries on either side of the main axis, as well as a smaller gallery off the lobby. The lower level will include two more galleries, a coffee bar, and a terrace offering additional scenic views.
The new building will add 14,000 square feet of gallery space, bringing the total exhibition space across both buildings to nearly 20,000 square feet—an 80 percent increase from the Brandywine’s current exhibition capacity. The new galleries—as well as those in the renovated Mill building—are designed with the Museum’s current collection and future aspirations in mind. On the upper level of the new building, a 4,000 square foot gallery will be dedicated to Brandywine’s expansive collection of landscape paintings, one of the strongest areas of the Brandywine’s collection but which cannot currently be shown in depth. Also on this level, another 4,000 square foot gallery will be used to present special exhibitions, and a 1,000 square foot space will be dedicated to the art of Andrew Wyeth. On the lower level, there will be a 1,000 square foot special exhibition gallery, as well as a 4,000 square foot gallery that will make the Brandywine the premier destination for works by the Wyeth family, featuring 130 years of artworks by five artists across three generations. The building will also include offices and back-of-house functions.
“Our design seeks to honor the dynamic and evolving relationship between art and nature, by creating a building that emerges from the landscape rather than imposing upon it,” said Kengo Kuma, Founding Partner, Kengo Kuma & Associates. Added Balázs Bognár, Partner and Executive Vice President at Kengo Kuma, “The design puts landscape at the heart of the experience, with the new building playing part of a much larger story of Brandywine's fused mission as a land conservancy and art museum. The landscape connects both museum buildings, encouraging all to find deeply personal paths from the surroundings to artwork and back again. We hope that visitors feel a meaningful sense of locale, following the footsteps of artists inspired by the place, immersed in histories, and surrounded by local materials, technique, and suffused forest light. The landscape and the art frame each other, and the new work offers considered spaces for that relationship.”
The original museum building, a converted mid-nineteenth century grist mill on the banks of the Brandywine Creek, will continue to serve as a vital hub of activity and an integral part of the visitor experience. Significantly damaged by historic flooding from Hurricane Ida in 2021, the Mill building recently underwent a state-of-the-art flood-hardening process using submarine-grade technology to make the lower level of the building watertight, safeguarding it against future severe flooding events. Several areas of the building were also recently renovated to replace public programming spaces previously located on the lower level, including modifications to the Museum’s outdoor courtyard—which now provides a barrier-free entrance, making it easier for audiences of all ages and abilities to access the building.
Additional planned renovations to the existing museum building include an interactive exhibit dedicated to the Conservancy’s land and water protection work, a new studio art classroom, and enhanced spaces for educational programming and special events. Once the new building is fully realized, the Mill building will maintain three of its existing galleries, totaling 5,500 square feet, for presenting works from the Museum’s permanent collection of American art. It will also continue to house the Millstone Café overlooking the Brandywine Creek, as well as the Walter & Leonore Annenberg Research Center and the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center—both important destinations for scholars of American art.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that this expansion to our campus completely reimagines the visitor experience to Brandywine and how the public interacts with our collections and exhibitions,” said Thomas Padon, the James H. Duff Director of the Brandywine Museum of Art. “The new building will make it possible for us to present richer, fuller, and more nuanced interpretations of American art, whether from our unparalleled Wyeth collection or our significant holdings in landscape paintings and American illustration, as well as larger and more flexible spaces for special exhibitions. At the Mill building, a beloved part of the Brandywine experience, visitors will continue to see works from the collection in an intimate setting and have access to a wider array of programs and events than we could previously accommodate.”
A 325-Acre Preserve and Garden
Beyond the walls of the two museum buildings, the expansion project will completely transform the Brandywine’s current 15-acre campus into a 325-acre public preserve and garden that is envisioned as a learning landscape, allowing visitors to experience more fully the land and the critical work of the Conservancy in new ways. Designed by the landscape architecture firm Field Operations, the campus will offer ten miles of trails—more than double the trails in place now—including sections with a boardwalk that will travel through wetlands. The expanded campus will be surrounded by native plants—a cornerstone of the Conservancy’s work—and will incorporate new interpretive signs highlighting the local ecology. The area around the new museum building will feature innovative stormwater infrastructure, integrating cutting edge tools for weather resilience into the joy of the museum experience. Landscape design will also include a new approach to the original museum building, with improved drop-off and parking areas, as well as expanded native gardens along the creek that will function as both landscape infrastructure and a central landscape feature.
Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about and more deeply connect with stewardship and natural resource conservation—central components of the Brandywine’s dual mission—through both the new educational installations in the original museum building, as well as throughout the campus preserve and gardens, which will include an outdoor classroom and nature play area. Meanwhile, the expanded trail system will connect both museum buildings to the natural landscape and to two of Brandywine’s most important assets: the original studios of N.C. and Andrew Wyeth, both National Historic Landmarks, which will have expanded public hours throughout the season, allowing more visitors to enter the world of these two artists and see the spaces just as they left them.
“Every element of our landscape design, from the plantings to the interpretive moments along the trails, is intended to deepen visitors' understanding of stewardship and their connection to the natural world,” said Sarah Weidner Astheimer, Partner, Field Operations. “The Brandywine Valley is a landscape of profound ecological significance, and our design for the expanded preserve and gardens seeks to reveal and celebrate both, while raising awareness of the essential, but often less visible, work of the Conservancy. Moreover, the additional miles of trails we are creating will immerse visitors in the surrounding environment in ways that allow people to experience firsthand the relationship between this land and the art it has inspired.”
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Unless otherwise noted, all renderings courtesy of Kengo Kuma & Associates and Field Operations