All language subtitles for Flowing.Water.2017.1080p.BluRay.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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-Fairyland is not a myth, after all!

It exists at Longwood,

the estate of Mr. and Mrs.
Pierre S. du Pont

in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania,

where our cameras traveled
for the premiere

of the illuminated fountains,
which can safely be called

the most spectacular night
displays on this continent,

if not, perhaps, in the entire world.

Spectators were afforded a splendid view

of this kaleidoscopic play of color

as jets of water mounted into the air

and were wafted away in a rainbow mist.

Each display is lighted with five colors:

red, blue, green, amber, and white.

But, oh! Just five colors
can be combined

to create a multicolor
feast for the eyes!

The fountain garden occupies a space

of perhaps a city square
and the work of laying out

the fountains and surrounding landscapes

has been in progress
for the past two years.

The Longwood Gardens of Mr.
And Mrs. Pierre S. du Pont,

already a byword for almost
unimaginable beauty,

have been a given a fresh

and immeasurably more elaborate charm

with this new addition

of this veritable Fairyland of fountains.

To grasp their beauty and grandeur,

you must see it for yourself!

-When Mr. du Pont turned
this garden on first, in 1931,

people had never seen anything like that.

People weren't used to seeing

a lot of colored fountains back then.

There had been a few,
but nothing quite like this.

-I remember Uncle Pierre said

he had some new fountains to show people.

We stood there with my mother
and father and sisters

and it was so big,
you had to turn your head

all the way one way

and turn it around
all the way the other way.

And there were still fountains
coming up and lights on them

and they shot way up in the air.

It was just unbelievable.

-Mr. du Pont really enjoyed the
idea of the garden as theater

and, of all the gardens at Longwood,

this is the most theatrical.

Longwood is about 1,077 acres.

Of that, five acres are devoted
to this particular garden,

the Main Fountain Garden,
so it's one of the most

complete collections
of fountains in the country.

It involves elements of architecture,

being all this stonework;

water, being all the fountains;

and a tremendous number of plants:

the trees, the boxwood,
the grass, everything.

Together, it forms what I think is

the most significant fountain
garden in the United States.

-The fountains have been
working nonstop since 1931.

We're really fortunate
that the fountains have lasted

as long as they have.

-In many gardens, fountains
are the first things to go.

There's so much active elements there:

the water coursing through the pipes

and the pipes rusting
and then breaking, so.

Typically, when you go to Europe
and you see old gardens,

it's a miracle that
the fountains are working

and, in many of those gardens,
they have put a lot

of concerted effort
into restoring the fountains,

so, that's exactly what we're doing here.

-It's the original fountain heads,

jets, the original pumps, pipes.

It's time to let her rest, so to speak,

and bring her back to life.

-Good morning, everyone.

This morning is a special morning

to observe and watch the
fountains for the last time

before we shut them down
for the next 2.5 years

to begin this important revitalization.

-I think that preservation is

one of the only ways
that we can make sure that

what we have today is here
for future generations.

Preservation, to me,
just has a lot of meaning.

A connection that I can have to someone

who built things 200 years ago or more,

I think, is wonderful.

I'm like a doctor
for masonry, essentially.

I take what's old and dilapidated-looking

and fix it up and put a patch here,

a patch there, and make it whole again.

-We're recreating
Pierre du Pont's 1930s garden,

which he had sort of borrowed heavily

from the mid-16th and later
historic gardens of Europe.

This is kind of collision of old and new,

which is creating this real
dynamism on the project.

-With kind of a world, now,
where you tear things down a lot

and build new, rather
than trying to figure out ways

to make it work, I think that

figuring out the way to make it work

is kind of a fun project and a challenge.

-I physically went and touched

and got to know
every single piece of stone.

There are 4,392 pieces of stone.

I measured them, I photographed them,

and I determined exactly

what repair works was needed
to each stone

and then, that took about six months

and that was compiled
into a 500-page book,

which was then given to the contractors,

so that they could price
and start the work.

-The scope of this project
is based almost 100%

dismantle of the stone,
which will then be crated

and brought back to our office
in Conshohocken.

Onsite, first,
we did some general cleaning,

which included water misting

and a light rinse and scrubbing
of all the pieces of stone.

-This is pretty much the first phase.

We're bringing as much dirt

and biological components to the surface.

It's really neat to see
what they did back then.

Very just natural, done by hand,

a lot of skill involved,
a lot of labor involved.

Makes you appreciate what you do now

to help preserve it, so.

-We have thousands
and thousands of pieces.

The biggest keyword on this
project is organization.

As we remove each piece
of stone, we'll number it,

we'll put a tag on it,
and then we'll crate it.

What's scary is making sure
that everything,

when we dismantle it,
comes apart in one piece.

It's scary and exciting,
at the same time.

-Imagine Versailles being built today.

People just don't build stuff
like this anymore.

We are not just going to
make it look pretty again.

After we disassemble the entire garden,

we're just gonna take the top
of it and peel it right back

and then we're gonna install
all-new infrastructure

that's appropriate for the 21st century,

that, hopefully it'll bring

another 100-plus years of life
to this fountain garden.

It is, by far, the largest
project we've ever done.

-I'm the conductor.

This is my orchestra.

You hear the music? It's
a beautiful sound, isn't it?

It's a major historical revitalization.

It's gonna be a huge undertaking.

A lotta guys onsite,

major hauling and excavation
and just trucks after trucks

runnin' in and out with materials,

deliveries comin' in.

Oh, this is construction.

You gotta love construction.

-The connecting thread of this project

is Pierre du Pont.

A project like this
is walking the tightrope

and you really have a couple
of paths that you can take.

You can have the long arm
coming from the grave

and you could restore it
perfectly in kind.

You could create the exact garden again.

That was not an option for us.

If our founder was still around today,

he would want to have the latest
technology, the best technology,

and he would want to explore
the landscape

in a way to improve it.

Because he was so innovative,
he wanted to be on the edge,

we realized that we wanted
to be on the edge,

with a reborn and revitalized
Main Fountain Garden.

-Every time the question
came up, "What should we do?"

In the room where we had
most of our meetings,

there's a portrait of Pierre

and I point to that picture and I say,

"If Uncle Pierre were alive
today, what would he do?"

-The first thing you would
notice about Uncle Pierre was

that he had no hair.

The sun would shine
off of the top of his head

and my mother said, "Well,
that's his halo."

-My Great-Uncle Pierre
was a person of great focus.

-The man had an incredible

mathematical and scientific mind.

-He certainly was skilled as an engineer,

as a chemist,
skilled as a financial planner.

-With all the things
he accomplished in his life,

he was not a very overpowering,
pompous kind of person.

He was very quiet, shy.

-There was the industrial side
of him, the business side;

and then there was the Longwood side.

He was a fun man.

He had a wonderful, dry sense of humor.

-Had had a touch of polio as a child,

so that he sometimes would walk
with a little bit of a limp.

-Not very tall, a little
bit round, very sweet face.

-Cared about the community
and had a very kind heart.

-My father would talk about him as being

kind of larger-than-life
and full of respect and love.

- Uncle Pierre was my hero.

-Pierre Samuel du Pont
is born January 15, 1870.

He is the third of 11 children,
the first boy,

born to Lammot and Mary Belin du Pont.

The du Pont family settles in Delaware

and builds a prosperous enterprise

out of the hazardous task
of making gunpowder.

Pierre's passion for fountains
is awakened in Philadelphia

when, at six years old,

he attends the 1876
Centennial Celebration.

He's captivated by the water
display he sees there.

It's called the Great Cascade.

It's a mini Niagara Falls
system of pumps,

designed to demonstrate the
sheer energy of hydraulic power.

It is thrilling, beyond
anything he can imagine.

-Pierre's father, Lammot du Pont
was a big, strong man,

a soccer player, you know,
a rugged individualist,

and he felt that his sons
should be the same.

Well, Pierre wasn't, either in terms

of his physical attributes
or his mental disposition.

What he really wanted to do
was study the piano,

so, Pierre made a secret pact
with his sister and said,

"Tell you what, if I do this for you,

will you let me take
your piano lessons?"

And so they did and they kept it
from their father for some time.

-Throughout his life,
Pierre thrills to the sights

and adventures provided
by world's fairs and expositions

that promote cutting-edge technologies

and inspiring artistic environments.

When he is 19, Pierre joins
his brothers and sisters,

his mother, and two maids
on a grand trip to Europe.

Their trip includes Paris,

where they visit the famed
Universal Exposition of 1889.

They experience the debut
of the Eiffel Tower

and a fantastic outdoor fountain display.

-So, they used all the latest
technology to light it

and the chronicles talk
about how it was like

diamonds and rubies and emeralds, so,

for 1889, this was pretty spectacular.

-In 1893, Pierre is delighted

by the World's Columbian
Exposition in Chicago.

The giant world's fair boasts
neoclassical architecture

and huge pools with fountains.

On either side of the central fountain,

there are two smaller fountains,

that are electrically illuminated.

These fountains provide the inspiration

for colored water at Longwood.

Pierre was inspired
by the theatrical experience

made possible by the marriage
of art and cutting-edge science.

-This was part of an overall
trend of industrial exhibitions

using the latest technology
to illuminate water,

using pumps to throw it up into the air,

and then using electricity
and arc lamps to color it,

so it was an early form of fiber optics

and the public had never seen
anything like it.

-In 1901, Pierre visits
the Pan-American Exhibition

in Buffalo, New York;

and, in 1904, he is wowed
by a huge central pool

with fountains, waterfalls, and fireworks

at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition in St. Louis.

-The two things that he really loved were

gardens and industrial world's fairs,

and he combined both
of those at Longwood.

-The most magnificent thing
out there, visually, is sunlight

and the second-most magnificent
thing out there, visually,

is water.

Everything else is third-class.

To me, it's the inherent
mechanical beauty of water

and the fact that we all
really do seek beauty.

We're in Los Angeles.

This is our design studio
here, at Fluidity.

We have a lot of other, really wonderful,

celebrated projects,
in places like Dallas or Dubai,

but the Main Fountain Garden
is a one-of-a-kind,

very special, very important project.

Part of what makes it so rich
and interesting

is having inherited
such a kind of noble beginning.

What we're trying to do is,

through the theater of the place,

convey the magic of the garden,

and there's a lot more
to that than engineering.

It's very technically challenging,

with really complex, physical puzzles,

and it has beautiful, elegant,
artistic puzzles as well.

It uses both art and science
to get there,

or, more fundamentally,
it uses aesthetics and physics.

We try to make the display
itself so fascinating

that you forget those complications

and you're just wrapped.

We wanted to totally change
the kind of images

that the water could paint in space,

from compositions
to transforming motion objects,

and we wanted to radically
improve the color.

It won't look like, you know,
a dime-store electric sign.

It's gonna look like a...

dragon rolling in a field,

just dreaming.

That's what it's gonna be like.

-Pierre's attraction to the theatrical

flowers at an early age.

When his family moves
to West Philadelphia

to be closer to his father's
new enterprise,

the Repauno Chemical Company
in Gibbstown, New Jersey,

12-year-old Pierre becomes
friendly with a neighbor

roughly his age,
a boy named Frederick Parrish,

soon to be known as the celebrated

illustrator and painter Maxfield Parrish.

Parrish creates a miniature
papier-mâché stage,

a foundation for
their theatrical adventures,

an affection Pierre retains
and shares with others

for the rest of his life.

In 1884, a massive explosion

tears through the
Repauno Chemical Company.

Five men are killed,
including Pierre's father.

Lammot was 53.

He left behind his wife, Mary,
and 10 children.

Pierre, just 14 years old,

becomes the acknowledged
head of the family,

a helpmate to his mother

and surrogate father to his siblings.

From that moment on,
his brothers and sisters,

even his older sister Louisa,
called him Daddy.

-Pierre du Pont, above everything else,

had a certain level of creativity.

Much of what went into the building

of the Main Fountain Garden was new.

There were pump systems that
you could not find comparable

anywhere, at the time.

He came up with
a early-20th-century technology

to mimic 17th-and 18th-century
water gardens he saw in Europe

and what we're doing here is coming up

with 21st-century technology

to sustain his 20th-century vision.

We want to redesign, restore it
in the spirit of du Pont.

We always ask ourself,
"What would Pierre do?"

Historically, whenever there's
a problem with the system,

there be a breakage of any of the pipes,

they would have to do
all the maintenance from above.

-When I started, 27 years ago,

there was no maintenance plan
for the Main Fountain Garden.

If we had a problem underground,
we were digging.

-They'd excavate.
They'd have to cut off

that part of the garden.

It'd be very disruptive
to the guest experience.

The introduction of tunnels,
all underground,

allow maintenance and repairs

to take place outside
the view of the guests.

-And you'll be able to go
through a tunnel

to service all the piping that's
gonna feed all the fountains

and these tunnels are pre-cast concrete,

roughly 12-foot by 12-foot, 8 feet long,

weighing in excess of 60,000
to 70,000 pounds apiece,

and they will go in like an Erector Set:

one piece after another,
locking together.

-The tunnel system
at the Main Fountain Garden

is really the backbone
of the entire garden system:

all the water piping,
the electrical conduit,

the propane lines
will all run within this,

and it provides the access point
to all of the fountain services.

These tunnels look
very expansive, 15 feet wide.

By the time we're done,

the walkway's maybe 4 or 5 feet wide,

only because it'll be
so full of equipment.

So, this whole thing is
an interconnected,

underground network, which brings

the Main Fountain Garden
into the 21st century.

-Pierre graduates
from William Penn Charter School

in 1886

and enrolls in the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.

His days are filled with chemistry,

though he plays the piano
nearly every night.

Pierre graduates from MIT
in 1890, well-trained

in the ways of modern
science and technology.

His career at DuPont begins.

Pierre earns $80 a week as an assistant

to the company's chief chemist
and inventor, Francis Gurney.

He stays for nine years,
without a promotion,

and becomes frustrated

by the lack of opportunity
for advancement at DuPont,

so Pierre takes a leap and moves to Ohio

to become president
of the Johnson Company,

a steel-rail-producing company in Ohio,

but he doesn't stay away for too long.

Three years later, he joins his cousins

Alfred Irénée and Thomas Coleman,

and they purchase DuPont.

The new generation of leaders
successfully transform

their family's century-old
gunpowder business

into a modern-day explosives empire.

-Anytime there's a successful
person in the world,

history tends to rewrite the dialogue,

such that we all think that

a sword was pulled out of a stone

and it was ordained
and he just did great things.

It really wasn't that way.

He took risks.

He worked hard.

Success was not assured.

But, through the daily struggles,

I mean, he really made something lasting.

"I have recently experienced

what I would formerly have diagnosed

as an attack of insanity,"

Pierre jokes in a letter
to a friend in 1906...

"that is, I've purchased a small farm

about ten miles from here.

As I've always considered
the purchase of real estate

a sign of mental derangement...

I fear that my friends
may be looking for permission

to inquire into my condition.

However, I believe
the purchase worth the risk,

"for my farm is
a very pretty little place."

This pretty little place
is known as Peirce's Park,

an arboretum of sorts.

It's home to a significant
collection of unusual trees,

cultivated by brothers
Joshua and Samuel Peirce

in Chester County, PA.

Pierre's purchase rescues Peirce's Park

from a local lumber company,

a defensive purchase, to save the trees.

Pierre, 36 years old,
is still a bachelor,

living at home with his mother.

His days are dominated
by the massive restructuring

of the DuPont Company

and his evenings are spent
dreaming about his new property.

He renamed Peirce's Park Longwood.

-In our today world,

with computers and Internet and apps,

but also with the bombardment
of commercial illusions,

we are craving authenticity
and for a sort of antidote.

-Gardens are a constant rebirth.

It's both relaxing and inspiring.

-People want a place to be
together which is more pleasant,

more pleasurable, more welcoming,

and be a place where you share memories.

I think that's why Longwood exists.

-So, Longwood is known
for these spectacular gardens,

really the "wow" factor,

and the Main Fountain Garden
hasn't always been

the most inviting space at Longwood,

so we really, fundamentally,
wanted to improve

the guest experience in the garden

and create this green oasis.

-What's really interesting
is that the original garden,

it was really Mr. du Pont
and his engineer Phil Brewer,

two people,
making all of those decisions.

So, here it is 2017,
and it's taking an army

of design professionals
to make those decisions

and to help guide our discussions.

-I think, as a landscape architect,

there's very few projects like this,

where you get an opportunity

to make something that's
gonna last generations

and make so many people so happy.

There are no constraints
in the design of a garden.

It can be fantastical
and it can be experimental.

For a project like this,
which is very rooted

in the legacy of an individual,
there are some things

which are sort of clear
where you wanna go.

You wanna stay with the spirit of du Pont

and adhere to what you knew
his values were,

but then there are things
that we had to invent.

-This fountain garden was made
from concrete and grass

and had railings

and so we thought, "We need to introduce

a sort of French-style tactility,"

so it was a whole repertoire,
from crushed-gravel edges,

stone, the water hedges, trees,
vegetation on the walls.

They are very small changes,

but, together, they make a relationship

between American style
and the French style.

-And we made a conscious decision not

to pick plants that bloom vividly,

but what we wanna do is use those plants

to really highlight
all the gorgeous architecture

and not draw attention
to itself, but enhance it.

-You can have beautiful eyes,
but, with eyeliner

or with makeup,
you can do something with it,

which is not undermining
the beauty of the eye;

it's even lifting it.

If we can do that
with the fountain garden,

then you have the same design,
the same layout,

but it is more dramatic.

-I think the guest
will enjoy the alley of trees.

You're on the gravel path.

You hear the crunch of the gravel.

There's a beautiful bench
that you can linger.

Similar to if you're walking
through a park in Paris.

I think it's going to be
a totally different experience

than it was in the past.

When people come to Longwood,

I think they're looking
for some peace and quiet.

Today's world is so chaotic,

and it's rare that you can go somewhere

and just listen and take a deep breath.

-It's a chance to look
at beautiful things,

to wonder how they develop them,

to think about what you
could do in your own backyard,

to think about what you could do
in your little city plot.

-I've seen people
down on their hands and knees,

with magnifying glasses,
looking into a flower,

you know, seeing
what it is and why it is.

-So, it's inspiration and it's release.

-A garden can be just
a place of quiet enjoyment

or you can have performances
and firework shows and fountains

that bring them to life
in unique and exciting ways.

This site is large enough

that you can do both at the same time.

-It's really about bringing
beauty into people's lives.

I believe that that's a fundamental need.

It's as important as the air we
breathe and the water we drink.

-I think my Great-Uncle Pierre
would get no greater joy

than seeing so many people,

1.4 million people, in fact,
enjoying Longwood every year.

It's kind of amazing,
when you think about it,

in this world of Instagram and Facebook,

that people put down
their phones for a moment

and enjoy these incredible gardens.

-It's a place to enjoy together.

You want to saunter through.

You don't want to rush through.

You wanna allow enough time
to visit all parts of it.

It's like going to a wonderful museum,

because there's so much to look at.

-Longwood's a very unusual estate,

in so far as many people
of his generation

who had substantial resources
built themselves

very fancy gardens around them
and what have you,

but they were walled estates.

They were for the enjoyment of the owners

and the owners' friends and family.

Pierre, on the other hand,

wanted Longwood to be
available to everybody,

so, from the get-go, this was a place

for the enjoyment
and education of the public.

It was his Wonderland, which
he loved sharing with people.

-Pierre du Pont was
really involved in the design

and choosing these pieces for his garden

and I can't even imagine
how he would feel,

if he could walk round this workshop now

and just sort of see
what we're doing to them

and see them close up again.

-We've never had a project this
large come back to our office.

We have in total a little
over 4,000 pieces of stone

and about 3,000 are in our shop.

Being able to manage the amount
of stones that are here

is a lot of work.

We're using a tracking system,

which has a QR code attached to it

and so each crate
had that QR code attached

and we were able to scan it
when it left the job site.

We're tracking when everything starts,

the cleaning process
and the repair process,

and then, when it gets packed up,

so we actually have a list of dates

that shows when everything was
done to each piece of stone.

Limestone varies throughout
the world and the country

and this stone, in particular,
has a lot of shell inclusions

which make it deteriorate in unique ways.

-We get a whole range
of different types of decay,

things that have shattered,
things that have got

very cold and wet and frosty
and just exploded.

-So, really,
we have to evaluate the stones

on an individual basis.

-We're looking after

Pierre du Pont's real personal vision.

This is what he chose,
down to the last detail.

We're unfolding his story again.

-The most rewarding part
is being able to see the stone

when it's repaired and cleaned.

I don't think that anyone imagined

that they would get this clean

or that you'd be able to see
this much detail on them,

which was really unrecognizable before.

-These are old friends,

so how do you take care
of that old friend

and make sure that, when they come back

to the garden, in two years' time,

that they meet their old friend
again and feel delighted?

-This is a masterwork.

By Pierre du Pont, who was quite
a thoughtful character.

He had a vision.

He was the author.
He was not just the client.

He arranged this.
He thought about it.

He proportioned it.
He did tests with water.

He didn't just engineer it.
He skillfully laid out

a composition that is masterful
in its effectiveness.

-I'm sure he would enjoy what
everybody's doing right now:

the design, the problem-solving,
the investment, the creativity,

which is, I think,
probably more valuable to him.

It was doing the work that was fun work.

Seeing people enjoy it was
the ultimate goal,

but, I don't think he did it
so he could sit back,

two years, three years, five years later,

and say,
"Wow, what a wonderful show."

I think he did it for the love
of the work itself.

-He loved the fountains, I think,

because it was a combination of,

you know, terrific technology
and terrific art and display.

I think he would be really thrilled

at this new iteration of the fountains.

-We're not changing anything
about the original set piece.

We're adding embellishments.

We've come up
with this new kind of nozzle,

based on something we saw in Germany,

which was a hoop of water, but these went

sort of diagonally
and they made a twisted swirl

and the spray did not
just convolute like this.

The composite angle created
a kind of a waistline of water,

and so they had this kind of bouquet.

Pretty beautiful, actually,

and it lights beautifully,
with all these crystal lines.

And then there's another thing
we added to this, which is,

which is flame,

and the flame is cool because
it's not just like a torch.

The fire comes up in tiny,
little bubbles in the jet

and so the flame is
on top of a jet of water.

It's like a primal dimension

that should always
have been here, but wasn't.

So, now, we're gonna have fire.

Krrr!

It has a theatrical presence,

but it has a much deeper,
magical content about it.

-Longwood's fountains have had

four main control systems over the years.

Now, in 2017,

we've started a new system,
called Syncronorm.

It's from Germany and it's
the latest development

for fountain control.

It has the typical controls

that you would turn pumps on
and change the lights;

but it also have a visualizer,
a second screen,

that allows you to see,
in color, and almost in 3-D,

what the fountain show
will look like in advance.

The end result that I'm trying
to get is kind of like

an impressionist picture come to life.

I've also thought of it kind of as being

at the Russian Imperial Ballet

and almost like a giant Fabergé
Easter egg made out of water.

There's just a lot of jewel
tones, as well as misty tones.

The possibilities are endless.

-It doesn't matter how many
mockups you've done.

It doesn't matter how much
tests or calculation,

how much drawings or studies,

reflecting, thinking.
It doesn't matter.

When the thing turns on, it's astounding!

The thousand things that are
going on, little breezes

and people jumping up and down

and the gloriousness of it.

It is astounding!

And that's what I'm looking forward to.

And with hope I'm not ruining it
by talking about it.

But it should make people cry,
it will be so awesome.

It should make people cry.

Pierre works tirelessly

for much of his young, professional life.

He does find time to relax,
attending countless dinners,

plays, and concerts
with his cousin Alice Belin.

Their friendship matures and, in 1915,

Pierre and Alice marry.

His professional life reaches
a new peak that same year

when he is named president
of the DuPont Company.

Pierre leads the company
through the most critical period

in DuPont's history,

as it transforms into a small family firm

into a large, modern corporation

and earning profits that reach
undreamed-of levels.

-He envisioned the modern corporation.

To envision an organization

that invested in raw research
and development?

To create Kevlar, nylon,
Tyvek, and many other things.

The creativity of that,

the ability to envision and then create?

He did it again and again and again

throughout his lifetime.

His talents, I think,
probably shouted at the world,

maybe in the way we look
at Bill Gates today.

-During the same years
that Pierre supervises

DuPont's huge wartime expansion,
he is asked

to rescue General Motors
from financial ruin.

-Then to be successful again,
in relatively short order,

in rescuing General Motors.

As a businessperson, to do it once

is a lifetime's achievement.

To do it twice is unbelievable.

-Along with great wealth,

Pierre's impressive record
of success in corporate America

invites great stress as well,
including family fights,

lawsuits, and challenges
from the federal government.

Through it all, he always
has Longwood, and Alice.

Many of the inspirations

for the design of Longwood Gardens come

from the experiences
that Alice and Pierre share.

-In 1910, he went to Italy

and he decided to invite Alice Belin,

who would become Mrs. du Pont,

and it was in Italy
that he visited seven villas,

including the Villa d'Este
in Tivoli, outside Rome.

The Villa d'Este is probably

the most famous
fountain garden in the world.

It was created in the 16th century

by a cardinal
who practically dug up the town

in order to bring the water
through underground reservoirs

and aqueducts,
through the town to his garden.

And it was there that he said,

"It would be nice to have
something like this at home."

And then, three years later,

he was back in Italy,
for a much larger trip.

They visited 22 different villas,

including the Villa Gamberaia,
which would provide inspiration

for the Italian water garden here;

and the Villa Gori,
which provided the inspiration

for an outdoor theater at Longwood.

And then, finally, in 1925,

he visited France with the
Garden Club of America.

This was after World War I.

They had access to many
private châteaus and gardens

that had not been opened publicly before.

These were the huge French
gardens, like Versailles

and Vaux-le-Vicomte and Courances.

-Pierre du Pont came
to visit gardens in Europe

because he was studying
all the big gardens

before creating
the fabulous Longwood Garden.

-He got to see there how they used water,

how they would build reservoirs on hills

that provided gravity-fed
fountain displays.

-He visited. He probably
talked quite a long time

with my great-grandfather
about the technical problems,

but he certainly, most important thing,

he looked at the garden
and sort of imagined

what would inspire him
for the Longwood Garden.

The garden created by Le Nôtre

was a composition of green grass,

alleys, and water.

Here, there's a sort of harmony

between the quantity of grass and water.

The magic of water adds
to the pleasure of a garden.

They did it for the pleasure
of the eye, for the movement,

and the contrast between
still waters and cascades

and waterworks, which filled up
all the pools with movement.

The waterworks is a pleasure
added to the visit.

It's a surprise.

"Oh, my God, look!

The water.
And here again! And there!"

-Pierre was a very simple
person and he was very shy,

but in his gardens,
he was very theatrical

and that's exactly what he liked
about Italian

and French gardens:
they're very theatrical.

The spectator almost becomes
an actor in a setting.

And nowhere, in any American garden,

is that more true than at Longwood.

All of his life,
Pierre was involved in business,

so what's amazing is
that he found the time

to pursue his design of
Longwood, which he did himself.

He was Longwood's basic
landscape architect.

He had used landscape architects
when he first started out.

He did not care for their work,
so, he bought a couple books,

started doing landscaping himself,

and Longwood certainly reflects
his ability as his own designer,

which is kind of unusual,
for these great estates.

There are two main periods
in the construction

of the Main Fountain Garden.

First, the main conservatory
was constructed,

from 1919 to '21.

It overlooked a large field
and Mr. du Pont decided,

"Well, I need some landscaping out here,"

so he did some initial landscaping

with boxwood and large trees
very close to the conservatory.

And then it sat like that
for a number of years.

He went on to build
the Italian water garden

and the open-air theater enlargement.

Finally, in about 1928,
he decided to finish the area

in front of the main conservatory,

and this was to be
the Main Fountain Garden.

So, in addition
to the existing landscaping,

he added much more landscaping.

He would move in trees
that were 70 feet tall.

He bought a boxwood that was
80 feet in circumferences

and cost $8,250, which was
a lot of money back then.

And so he planted over 500
mature trees and shrubs

over basically a five-year period

and spent several
hundred thousand dollars

on the landscaping.

He was 60 years old.

He couldn't wait
for young plants to mature,

so he would bring in mature trees.

What he got was an instant garden.

Most of those trees are still there

and provide a much larger backdrop

than even when the garden first opened.

And what's important about the garden

is that you have this water,

but it's all surrounded by green,

the green of turf,
boxwood, and mature trees,

so the green backdrop makes the water

actually show up even better
than it would, otherwise.

This was sort of the culmination
of his life's work

in garden design.

Pierre was very involved
in all the aspects

in the construction
of the Main Fountain Garden,

particularly in the stonework.

When it came to the carved stone,

he worked with the supplier
in Italy, Olivotti,

and their Chief Designer
Piero Morseletto.

They would send all the designs over.

He would accept some;
he would reject some.

He spent a great deal of time
worrying about

the ornamentation of the garden.

-Longwood's always had a tradition

of having something that's unpredictable.

You turn the corner and you find
something you don't expect.

-Grottos are otherworldly.

They're a place of retreat.

They hark back to the Homeric cave.

They were used by emperors
and also by hermits,

so they crossed the cultural
and social divides historically.

They're spaces of magic.

Nymphs might live here.

It might be religious.

-There are grottos in Europe
and other parts of the world

where it's almost
as if the devil is coming out

from the center of the Earth

and so they're kind of spooky and eery,

but also beautiful and inspirational.

And so we've created a grotto

that is unlike others in the world,

in the fact that it's new
in the 21st century.

We had this wonderful opportunity

because we were going
to blow out and excavate

the entire original pump house,

so we had this open canvas
and it was wonderful

because we could do it
behind the original wall.

-We wanted to design the grotto
whereas it was not very evident,

but, as you got close to it,
you saw these two,

small openings in the pump-house wall,

and if you happened to wander into those,

you turn the corner...

-And you will descend
into a very different world

and you'll hear the water movements

as you come down into the grotto

and then the chamber
will open up before you.

There'll be some very
concealed light sources

which will feel
very intimate and magical.

We will have this very large,
circular water curtain

which falls from the heavens

and there's a sense
that the water that's cascaded

down the garden toward the grotto

is then closed in its loop,

it's back to its aquifer
and it's the sort of termination

and the source for water in the garden.

We really studied those historic grottos

that Pierre du Pont
would've seen: Villa d'Este;

Vaux-le-Vicomte in France, in particular.

In studying those, we kind of
came up with the shapes

and then the next layer for us was

to make this specific
to its location at Longwood.

Grottos are about rock.
They're a heavenly cave,

so we did a lot of exploration
about the geology

around Longwood and that really informed

how we treated the interior
with this local stone,

this mica stone
which has this sparkle to it.

-A piece of stone is not just

a piece of stone sitting on the ground.

This stone has life in it.

I can feel it.

-It's a building material
that's been around

since the beginning of time.

The very oldest of buildings were stone

and I think that's probably
the charm of it.

-Most of the stone comes
from here, from D'Amico Quarry.

-They were trying to look
for a grade of stone

that would give 'em a really old
feel, and the mica does that.

This has got a lot of fleck
and sparkly stuff in it.

-It's not easy to find the texture,

what makes it look pretty old.

That's what makes the difference
on this type of stone.

-Well, in the afternoon, like now,

there'll be quite a bit of light in here,

but early morning,
maybe later in the evening,

it'll be a really
kind of a darker, neat feel,

and when they have night events,
when they open this up,

the lighting will be spectacular.

-People who've been coming
to Longwood for decades

will think, hopefully, that,

"Gosh, was that grotto
always there?",

when it's going to be an entirely new

and different experience.

-We've taken all these pieces
of stone apart.

Now, we have to fit them back together

over new concrete structures
that sit below them

and making sure that coordinates
with all the lighting

and the tiles and all the other
new things in the planting.

It's a really exciting,
but also challenging, phase.

We're trying to put this
jigsaw puzzle back together.

-The night belongs to something magical.

You need something at night that
you don't have during the day.

It's in our bodies.
It's physiological.

And the night is there to remind us

that we belong to larger universe.

I founded L'Observatoire International,

which is a lighting-design company.

Like I say very often to my team,

we are storyteller.

It's like writing a movie

and the light is the great actor.

It's how we orchestrate
different type of light

to create like an emotion, a surprise.

It should talk to your heart,
talk to your sense.

We're lighting, in a very subtle way,

all the architecture and the basins.

Tried to hide the lighting
as much as I could,

having light fixture
under the bench for the path,

lights subtly the trees

so they don't become like too artificial.

At night, all those

little detail of architecture
can be magnified.

During the day, the light come down.

At night, the light come up.

The visitors don't always see this data,

which is great, because it gives them

the opportunity of coming during the day

and coming back
at night to see something else.

-It's been a construction site
for a long time.

Lighting is kind of the final
little piece of the project.

It puts it all together
for the evening experience.

It's a beautiful time to kind of
see the balance, you know.

You start to see the highlights
that the lighting can bring out.

We call it the blue moment,
which is a time period

after the sun has gone down
and the sky starts to transform

and go through these
beautiful shades of indigo

and it's essentially like a crossfade

between daylight and electric light.

People are really, really
encouraged in this new design

to really enter the garden.

Lighting, in our view, in the evening,

is part of that invitation to explore.

Not just see something from a distance,

but really get up close
and personal and touch the water

and discover some of these
really special places

that are little hidden gems.

- I like to keep the spirit
of the mystery of the night.

This place has a life during the day

and should have a very
different life at night,

having like mysterious moments

where not everything is evenly lit,

to give sense of a little bit more depth.

It's a little bit emotional
for the first time

when you see your project

when it's getting built
and realize like this.

You see what it looks like, you know,

from the drawing, from the imagination,

from everything
you've been dreaming about,

and, now, it's alive.
It's here.

I'm from France
and I remember, in my early age,

my parents taking me to Versailles.

In the summertime,
you had a beautiful water show.

It was fabulous.

And the memory I have brings
some of the sensation here.

You always remember the emotion
and what you felt.

It never leaves your mind.

It doesn't leave your body.

You always feel it.

-I couldn't sleep very much.

I've been waiting for this day for years

and, suddenly, it's here.

We had one chance to get this right.

Knowing that this was going
to live beyond any of us

that are involved in it right now,

striving for the highest quality
was without question.

What's so remarkable about this project

is that it looks very simple.

I compare it to almost like a ballet.

It's so beautiful and it just flows.

What people don't see
is the hours and hours

of daunting practice, tears, and blood

that have been shed
on every little movement

that that ballet dancer has made.

Anything that you see in this project,

hundreds of thousands
of decisions and discussions

have been made behind every detail

and it's those details
that make Longwood special.

It's one of the reasons this
project has taken six years.

Everything that we had hoped and
dreamed, it is really happening!

It's like nothing you have ever,
ever seen before, in your life.

-Wow!

-I'm just blown away by the whole thing.

- It was absolutely spectacular.
- Loved it.

It was vibrant, beautiful.
- Excellent.

-I was expecting like a 10,
and it ended up being like a 20.

-When we first came here,

I noticed how lively the fountains were.

They kinda greeted us when we walked by

and shooting up
and splashing us with water.

-If you just close your eyes
and listen to the water,

it feels like a different time
and a different place.

-Sort of like Ancient Greece
or something.

-I was thinking of being

a little kid,
running through the sprinkler.

There was a visceral happiness.

-It makes you feel alive.

-We look around and just stare in awe.

-All the colors in the rainbow.

-The colors were so vivid.

-I didn't expect to see fire
on the water.

The flame jets.

Oh, my gosh.

-I have no idea how that's
possible, but, it was awesome.

-It was really poetic, at times,
and then very powerful.

-I loved the swaying.
It looked like it was like

backup dancers on a stage.
- Yeah.

-They make me wanna
♪ sing and dance ♪

-I've been coming here since
I was a little, little kid,

and it's a brand-new memory.

-Brought everybody together this year,

an experience that everybody enjoyed.

-The thing that I'm most proud of

is the fact that
we were bold enough to do it.

-I never want somebody to say,
"Oh, I've been to Longwood.

I don't have to go back,"

and so we have to keep changing.

We have to keep thinking
about what the visitor

of 20 years from now
is going to appreciate,

because heavens knows we're not gonna

replace those fountains again
for another 100 years,

or maybe 150 years,
the way they've been built.

-It was, without a doubt,

our founder, Pierre du Pont's, vision.

He wanted it to be beautiful.
He wanted it to have

extraordinary plants
and displays grown here

and he wanted people to have fun

and he wanted people to be inspired.

-If Uncle Pierre were alive today...

...he would look at those people
and hear those people laughing

and enjoying themselves
and think to himself,

"Yes! We've done it.

And we've done it right."