As administrator for the crown, Kalinderu enacted his vision of rural improvement, setting up model farms and a cottage industry, promoting literacy and the arts, and encouraging entrepreneurship. He viewed these methods as a working alternative to land reform, defending property rights during and after the peasants' revolt of 1907. He was praised for his passion and dedication, but also criticized for the uncertainty of their outcome. In addition to his agrarian project and his social work, Kalinderu played a significant part in promoting mountaineering and modern forestry, set up the resort of Bușteni, and created his own art museum. A picturesque figure with eccentric customs, and often regarded as snobbish and servile, he became a stock character for the writers and cartoonists at "Furnica" magazine. His unfulfilled promise to donate his fortune to the public bled into a posthumous scandal which lasted into the interwar years.