The Full Story Behind the Controversial Rose Garden Redesign – Architectural Digest

The Rose Garden, photographed in spring 1963 while in full bloom.

Who knew that 10 crab apple trees gone AWOL could spark nationwide outrage? But such was the case on Saturday, when first lady Melania Trumps under-wraps renovation of the White Houses world-famous Rose Gardencreated for President John F. Kennedy in 1962 by the philanthropist and garden designer Rachel Bunny Lambert Mellonwas unveiled to the press, and the ethereal, pink-flowering ornamentals were nowhere to be seen. The boxwood-delineated north and south parterres of the West Wing area had also been revised: Sweeps of largely white roses trucked in, and expanses of limestone, looking raw in the bright August sunshine, framed the central lawn.

The work was carried out by Oehme, van Sweden and Associates and Perry Guillot Inc., two award-winning American firms, under the direction of the 14-member Committee for the Preservation of the White House and the three-member Committee for the Preservation of the White House Grounds, plus 10 external advisers. Thats a lot of expert cooks in the kitchen, among them the grounds committees Leslie Greene Bowman, the president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation; Richard C. Nylander, the curator emeritus of Historic New England; and Thammanoune Kannalikham, the low-profile White House interior designer.

Since the Rose Garden was revealed, social media has crackled with fury, condemnation, personal attacks, and, as always, misinformation. (More on that, anon.) This is just a sad quadrangle, former NPR executive producer Kitty Eisele said in a dispirited Tweet. NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell retweeted a photograph of the garden posted by the presidential historian Michael Beschloss and the plaint What happened to the trees? Then there was Mark Magowan, a cofounder of Vendome Press, publisher of exquisite books about interiors, gardens, and architecture, including Linda Jane Holdens The Gardens of Bunny Mellon (2018). He emailed me on Monday morning to say, I find it shocking that a committee, operating in complete secrecy, has the authority to neuter one of the most beloved public spaces in the White House complex.

Another early 1960s view of the garden shows the West Wing Colonnade in the background.

Thats an argument with which I happen to agree, though the transparency might have proven unwieldy and resulted in even more blowback. The Rose Garden team nevertheless should have anticipated the firestorm by posting the plans and their developments on the White House website, welcoming comments (good or ill), and talking about it in interviews instead of announcing the renovation just weeks before it was to start. Still, if Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram bear accurate witness, it must be said that many of President Donald J. Trumps supporters have praised the refreshed Rose Garden, calling it elegant, appropriate, and, as one tweeted, clean and classy. Guillot, a Hamptons-based talent whose clients include Aerin Lauder and Tory Burch, told me via email, The project has been the honor of my career.

The Rose Garden revision strikes me as the epitome of deluxe-hotel graciousness. Treeless beds flank the central lawn like the borders of a carpet rather than reaching for the sky like a cathedral; the 10th of an acre seems deflated, even though the attendant roses havent yet grown in and indeed might never do so. (Keep reading; youll find out why.) In addition to lending height, the crab apples, which are members of the rose family, also helped mask the West Colonnades stark white columns, white walls, and odd floating fanlights. Architecture buffs such as Eric Groft of Oehme, van Sweden are delighted to see the colonnade, designed by Benjamin Latrobe and Thomas Jefferson, so fully visible now, but the crab apples disappearing act remains perplexing. Especially so given that Oehme, van Swedens White House Rose Garden Landscape Report offered two attractive alternativesboth of which incorporated crab apples rising from the parterres as intended by Mellon, an exceptionally gifted amateur, and landscape architect Perry Wheeler, with whom she worked on the project.

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The Full Story Behind the Controversial Rose Garden Redesign - Architectural Digest