Bard College Receives $93,000 from the Garden Conservancy for Blithewood Garden Rehabilitation

Bard College has been gifted $93,000 from the Garden Conservancy to go toward construction drawings that will aid the rehabilitation of Blithewood Garden. The construction documents, which will be created by award-winning preservation architecture firms Jan Hird Pokorny Associates (JHPA) and Integrated Conservation Resources, Inc. (ICR), will be used as the blueprints for the restoration of Blithewood’s landscape.

“We are delighted that the Garden Conservancy is partnering with Bard to preserve the rich history of Blithewood Garden for future generations,” said Debra Pemstein, vice president of development and alumni/ae affairs at Bard College. “This generous contribution will help with ongoing restoration efforts to renew Blithewood’s iconic landscape for the Bard community and beyond.”

Blithewood Garden is considered a nationally significant Beaux Arts, Italianate garden with significant connections to the evolution of American landscape design and is one of the few intact Hudson River estate gardens that remain from the Gilded Age. Situated on a steeply sloping bluff approximately 130 feet above the Hudson River, Blithewood is a 45-acre section of Bard’s campus that was once part of a historic estate comprising a manor house, outbuildings, drives, gardens, lawns, and meadows. Bard College has partnered with the Garden Conservancy, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to preserve and share America’s gardens, on the restoration of Blithewood Garden. 

Blithewood Garden is open to the public from dawn to dusk every day. For more information, visit bard.edu/arboretum/gardens/blithewood.

Post Date: 05-19-2023