A great outdoor space does more than look beautiful. It shapes how people experience a place.
For GreenRoots Design Firm, that idea was at the heart of our work at The Francis Hotel in downtown Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. Working alongside The Francis and Square Roots Collective, we had the opportunity to transform the hotel's exterior and courtyard into an outdoor experience that feels intimate, inviting, and distinctly connected to the community around it.
The result is more than a beautifully designed hotel courtyard and exterior space. It is a contribution to the evolving character of downtown Kennett Square.
A Courtyard Rooted in Kennett Square
Kennett Square has a personality all its own. Its historic buildings, walkable downtown, independent businesses, restaurants, gardens, and strong connection to the surrounding Brandywine Valley create a sense of place that visitors immediately feel.
The Francis Hotel sits within that fabric.
Rather than treating the landscape as simply an amenity surrounding the hotel, GreenRoots approached the project as an opportunity to extend that sense of place outdoors. From the street, through the custom steel gate, and into the courtyard beyond, each transition was designed to create a sense of arrival and discovery.
The goal was not to create a landscape that could belong anywhere.
It was to create one that felt at home in Kennett Square.
From Street to Courtyard
One of the defining elements of the project is the custom-manufactured steel gate that marks the transition from the street into the hotel's courtyard.
The gate establishes a strong architectural threshold while creating a moment of curiosity: what is beyond it?
Once inside, the atmosphere shifts. Layered plantings, natural materials, and a sculptural water feature create a lush, intimate retreat that contrasts with the architecture surrounding it. The courtyard gives hotel guests a place to slow down, gather, or simply enjoy being outside.
That progression, from public street to private-feeling garden, is an important part of the experience.
Landscape design has the ability to influence not only how a space looks, but how people move through it and how they feel once they arrive.
Where Landscape and Interior Design Meet
The Francis project also gave GreenRoots the opportunity to collaborate closely with the interior design team at Riverwards General.
The landscape and interiors were considered together rather than as separate experiences. Materials, colors, textures, sightlines, and the overall atmosphere were coordinated so that the transition between inside and outside felt intentional.
That connection is especially important in hospitality design.
A guest's experience doesn't stop at the front door. The exterior establishes the first impression, while outdoor spaces can become destinations of their own. At The Francis, the courtyard acts almost like another room, one without walls, but with its own sense of intimacy and character.
This approach reflects how we think about outdoor spaces at GreenRoots: a landscape should feel like an extension of the architecture and the way people want to experience a property.
Designing for Community, Not Just the Property
Projects in downtown environments have an impact beyond their property lines.
A thoughtfully designed hotel contributes to the experience of the surrounding neighborhood. It gives visitors another reason to linger, creates visual interest along the street, and becomes part of the story people take home with them.
That is particularly meaningful for a community like Kennett Square.
The Francis is part of a broader culture of independent businesses, hospitality, food, art, gardens, and community investment that makes downtown Kennett Square such a distinctive destination. The landscape helps reinforce that identity by creating an outdoor experience that feels personal rather than corporate.
For GreenRoots, being able to contribute to that environment is especially meaningful because Kennett Square is home.
We have been designing and building landscapes here for more than two decades. Our work ranges from private residential landscapes and outdoor living spaces to commercial landscapes, hospitality environments, courtyards, and community spaces throughout Chester County and the Brandywine Valley.
The Francis allowed us to bring that same attention to detail into the heart of our own community.
The Details Create the Experience
The courtyard at The Francis is relatively intimate, but its impact comes from the layering of details.
A custom steel entry.
Architectural planting.
Natural materials.
A sculptural water feature.
Carefully considered sightlines.
Intimate spaces for gathering and quiet moments.
Each element has a purpose, but the design works because those elements were considered as a whole.
That is the difference between simply adding landscaping and creating a designed outdoor environment.
At GreenRoots Design Firm, we believe the most successful landscapes are cohesive from the largest gesture down to the smallest detail. The materials, planting, circulation, architecture, and surrounding environment should all feel as though they belong to the same story.
Hospitality Landscape Design in Chester County
Hospitality properties have a unique opportunity to use landscape design to define the guest experience.
For a boutique hotel, that might mean a welcoming entry landscape, an intimate courtyard, outdoor gathering spaces, gardens, terraces, or connections between the building and surrounding streetscape.
For restaurants, inns, breweries, wineries, and other destinations, outdoor spaces can become part of what brings people through the door, and what makes them want to stay.
GreenRoots provides commercial and hospitality landscape design and installation for properties throughout Kennett Square, Chester County, Northern Delaware, and the greater Philadelphia region. Our design-build approach allows the same team responsible for developing the vision to carry that vision through installation, preserving the details that make the design successful.
Creating Places That Belong
The most rewarding landscape projects are not always the largest.
Sometimes they are the spaces that quietly become part of how people experience a place.
The courtyard at The Francis is one of those spaces.
It gives guests a moment of calm in the middle of downtown. It creates a meaningful transition between the historic character of Kennett Square and the contemporary experience of the hotel. And it contributes another layer to the landscape of a community that continues to grow while maintaining its distinctive sense of place.
For GreenRoots Design Firm, it was an opportunity to do what we love most: create thoughtful, beautifully crafted outdoor spaces that feel as though they were meant to be there.
And in this case, that place happens to be right here at home.
The Francis Hotel
Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
Landscape Design + Installation: GreenRoots Design Firm
Interior Design: Riverwards General
Photography: Mark Rutt Creative
For more information on The Francis and information on how to stay in this boutique hotel, visit https://thefrancisksq.com/
To begin an exterior design and installation process with GreenRoots, contact us today!