Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens

The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens is a collection of 45 outdoor sculptures located at the PepsiCo world headquarters in Purchase, New York. Established in 1970, the gardens integrate major 20th-century sculptural works into a 168-acre landscape of lawns, trees, ponds, and fountains. The collection features art from prominent modern sculptors such as Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, and Alexander Calder, existing in harmony with carefully tended park-like landscaping that includes topiary, tended hedges, flower beds, and water-lily ponds.

The sculpture garden was created at the direction of Donald M. Kendall, the chief executive officer of PepsiCo, when the company moved its headquarters from Manhattan to the suburban Purchase site in 1970. The gardens opened to the public on October 2, 1970. Kendall sought to create an atmosphere of stability, creativity, and experimentation that would reflect his vision of the company. The landscape was initially laid out in the 1960s by architect E.D. Stone, and from 1981 to 1985, the park was reconfigured by landscape architect Russell Page. The collection expanded after the headquarters was built and the gardens began to take shape, and the gardens themselves were subsequently designed with regard to the sculpture. Kendall remained involved with the collection and the gardens after stepping down as leader of the company.

The collection focuses on major 20th-century art, offering an overview of many movements in twentieth-century sculpture. It encompasses the work of numerous American and international sculptors. The 45 works range from modern classical sculptors such as Auguste Rodin, Henri Laurens, and Alberto Giacometti to mid-century and later figures like Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Arnaldo Pomodoro, Jean Dubuffet, and Claes Oldenburg. The gardens blend monumental sculptures, placed in distant vistas surrounding the headquarters, with smaller, non-monumental works situated in the sunken gardens and inner courtyards.

Significant works in the collection include Auguste Rodin's Eve, Alexander Calder's Hats Off, which Calder personally sited in the park, and Max Ernst's Capricorn. Henry Moore is represented by four works: Double Oval, Locking Piece, Reclining Figure, and Sheep Piece. Alberto Giacometti contributed Large Standing Woman II and Large Standing Woman III. Other notable pieces include Isamu Noguchi's Energy Void, Claes Oldenburg's Giant Trowel II, George Segal's Three People on Four Benches, and David Smith's Cube Totem Seven and Six. The collection also holds multiple works by Barbara Hepworth, Arnaldo Pomodoro, and David Wynne, whose Girl with a Dolphin resides in the front courtyard fountain. Segal's piece notably invites public interaction, as a conservator noted in 1991 that people routinely plant lipstick kisses on the sculpture.

The site was built partly on a former polo field and centers on an enormous, three-story headquarters building designed by Edward Durrell Stone. From above, the building is shaped like seven squares connected by their corners, forming a cross with an inner cross-shaped courtyard that opens to the north facing Anderson Hill Road. The square blocks rise into low inverted ziggurats, with each floor featuring strips of dark windows topped by tan-white concrete or stone. The vast south lawn enhances the perceived height of the structure, an effect lessened on the entrance side by trees and a more level approach. Parking is hidden behind trees on the east side. At the entrance, a long driveway leads to the courtyard, where the PepsiCo corporate flag and the United States flag fly. The open north arm of the courtyard ends at a large fountain and paved area, while the three closed arms feature sunken gardens with trees, bushes, a small pond, and sculptures.

The sculpture garden is open to the public with no admission charge, and parking is free. A visitor's booth operates during the spring and summer. When the center is closed, visitors can obtain a map of the gardens from a security guard at the headquarters entrance. As of July 2025, the garden is open on weekends from March 30 to November 16, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on selected holidays including Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, and Indigenous People's Day. Visitors can reach the site via Metro-North commuter trains to White Plains or Rye, followed by a taxi, or by taking the No. 12 bus from the White Plains railroad station. Across Anderson Hill Road from the headquarters, additional modern art is displayed at the Neuberger Museum of Art on the campus of Purchase College of the State University of New York.