Who designed the 2021 White House Rose Garden renovation and what was their vision?
Executive summary
The 1962 Rose Garden redesign was created by Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon at Jacqueline Kennedy’s request; Mellon’s plan emphasized a central lawn framed by crabapple and linden trees, thyme and boxwood hedges, and signature rose varieties to reveal and complement the White House colonnade [1] [2]. The 2020 renovation unveiled under First Lady Melania Trump involved a team including landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates and Perry Guillot, Inc., and was described by White House interior designer Thammanoune Kannalikham as a “collective decision” to respond to changes in the garden over nearly 60 years [2] [3].
1. Who originally designed the modern Rose Garden — the Mellon vision
Rachel “Bunny” Mellon was the amateur horticulturist and garden designer credited with the defining 1961–62 redesign commissioned by Jacqueline Kennedy; Mellon created a “bone structure” centered on a large central lawn, framed by crabapple and little‑leaved linden trees, edged with thyme and boxwood, and planted with signature rose varieties such as Queen Elizabeth and Pascali [1] [4]. White House historical material and multiple histories describe Mellon's approach as creating a restrained, formal setting that both served ceremony and showcased the White House’s architecture [5] [6].
2. What Mellon’s vision intended the space to convey
Mellon’s stated design intent was to produce a “garden both useful and attractive” that revealed the colonnade and provided a calm, ceremonial backdrop; she emphasized a clear structural outline or “bone structure” so plantings would support public functions while retaining seasonal interest and texture [5] [1]. Sources note Mellon favored restrained plant palettes and symmetry so that the garden framed the West Wing visually and allowed formal events to read well on television and in person [1] [4].
3. Who led the 2020 renovation and how they described their goals
The 2020 renovation implemented while Melania Trump was First Lady drew on a team including Oehme, van Sweden & Associates and Perry Guillot, Inc., with input from the White House Grounds Committee and interior designer Thammanoune Kannalikham; the team said the project was a collective response to the garden’s changed environment after six decades [2] [3]. Architectural Digest and other contemporaneous reporting identify the same committee members and quote Kannalikham calling the choices a committee or collective decision [2].
4. What the 2020 team changed and why they said they did it
Reporting describes the 2020 work as increasing formal paving and introducing boxwood parterres, structured rose beds, and reduced herbaceous borders, aiming for formality, accessibility, and a layout that emphasized the colonnade and circulation [2] [7]. The team and some experts defended changes as addressing practical problems — poor drainage, lawn die‑off, and disease susceptibility that had plagued the earlier planting scheme — and as an update to a garden nearly 60 years old [8] [2].
5. The controversies and competing perspectives
Journalists and preservationists split on the renovation: critics argued the redesign erased Mellon's softer, historic planting and replaced a central lawn with paving and a more formal look, prompting petitions and public outcry; defenders pointed to horticultural decline and framed the changes as necessary modernization and a deliberate aesthetic choice to reveal the colonnade [7] [2]. Architectural Digest reports notable preservation‑minded figures were involved in committee discussions, while mainstream outlets documented social‑media backlash and debates about timing during the pandemic [2] [7].
6. Limits of available reporting and open questions
Available sources detail Mellon’s original design intent and identify the 2020 design team and their stated rationale, but specific technical reports (e.g., full planting lists, drainage engineering documents, or a formal Grounds Committee minutes) are not included in the provided material; those documents would clarify exact horticultural and drainage decisions [2] [8]. The precise extent to which each named firm versus committee members shaped individual choices is described as collective in the sources rather than attributing discrete elements to single individuals [2].
7. Bottom line for readers
Mellon created the Rose Garden’s enduring “bone structure” — a low‑profile, lawn‑centered formal space meant to showcase the White House — and the 2020 update was completed by a multi‑member team that framed their work as a collective modernization to address age‑related horticultural and functional issues; both visions explicitly prioritized the relationship between planting and the West Wing architecture, but they favored different aesthetics and plant palettes, producing the dispute captured in reporting [5] [2].