The Metropolitan Museum of Art has launched a complete reconstruction of its four-block-long plaza along Fifth Avenue—one of New York City's iconic outdoor spaces. The Museum's new gateway will feature: contemporary fountains, trees and aerial hedges, new granite paving, seating for the public, and enhanced lighting to illuminate the historic facade at night.
The redesign of the Museum's plaza is scheduled for completion in fall 2014. Read more about the project.
Visitor Tips during Second Phase of Construction, through December 2013
All Museum entrances are open.
The Parking Garage is open.
A Sneak Peak
Upon completion in the fall of 2014, the Metropolitan's new plaza will welcome visitors with splendid display fountains and tree-shaded allées with casual seating where they can relax after touring the galleries. Once redesigned, the plaza will befit the beauty of the collections inside the Museum and reaffirm its role as one of New York City's most important public gathering places.
These architectural renderings provide a brief glimpse of the plaza improvements to come.
Art Leads the Way
To ensure visitors' ease of entrance into the Museum during the plaza renovation, the Metropolitan Museum is putting works of art to work.
Selected from across the Met's wide-ranging collections, details of photographs, paintings, and other objects mounted on plaza signage direct visitors to the public entrances on Fifth Avenue at 82nd and 81st Streets as well as to the public parking garage at 80th Street.
Among the many images on display are works by Eadweard Muybridge, whose nineteenth-century stop-action photographs of people and animals engaged in walking, jumping, and other activities captured postures that were previously invisible to the human eye. Newly photographed and enlarged hundreds of times from their original size for the signage, Muybridge's fascinating "Animal Locomotion" photographs have never been shown this large anywhere in the world.
The Muybridge locomotion images are joined by details of objects from the collections with arrow-like patterns. From the turquoise blue-and-yellow glass of an ancient Greek perfume bottle to the precisely patterned silk of a Chinese empress's robe, these colorful details are also meant to create a feeling of movement.
During the plaza renovation, images of fingers and hands, excerpted from paintings and sculptures, will literally point the way for visitors into the Met. We encourage you to take a moment to explore these works of art, seen in detail above. Further information can be found in Collections by clicking on each image detail or on the captions below.
Images: Eadweard Muybridge (American, born Great Britain, 1830–1904). Details from Animal Locomotion. An Electro-Photographic Investigation of Consecutive Phases of Animal Movements, 1880s. Rogers Fund, transferred from the Library (1991.1135.7): Volume 7, plate 197, Man and woman dancing a waltz; Volume 7, plate 156, Woman Climbing Stairs and Jumping Down; Volume 7, plate 49, Walking and turning around rapidly with a satchel in one hand, a cane in the other; Volume 9, plate 596, "Eagle" trotting, free; Volume 7, plate 386, Miner, using a pick; Volume 7, plate 38, Walking and opening a parasol; Volume 5, plate 152, Jumping, running straight high jump; Arrow Patterns: Glass amphoriskos (perfume bottle), late 6th–5th century B.C., Classical, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean, Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891 (91.1.1239); Pair of Minbar Doors, ca. 1325–30, Egypt, Cairo, Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891 (91.1.2064); White cross-lined ware bowl with geometric patterns, ca. 3700–3650 B.C., Predynastic, Naqada I, Egypt, Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910 (10.130.1174); Wearing Blanket, 1860–70, Navajo, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1039); Shield, mid to late 19th century, Australia, northeastern Queensland, Queensland, Northeastern Queensland, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1802); Robe, Empress's Dragon, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Jiaqing period (1796–1820), China, Bequest of William Christian Paul, 1929 (30.75.99); Pavel Janàk, manufactured by Werkstätte Artel, Coffee Pot, ca. 1912, Purchase, Lita Annenberg Hazen Charitable Trust Gift, 2000 (2000.173a,b); Coptic Textile Fragment, late 3rd–5th century, Egypt, Purchase by subscription, 1889 (89.18.95); Prestige Panel, 20th century, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sankuru River region, Kuba peoples, Gift of William B. Goldstein, 2001 (2001.271.7); Covered Box, Designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany (designer), Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (maker), 1898–1902, Gift of Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, 1951 (51.121.41a, b); Cosmological Mandala with Mount Meru, 14th century, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), China, Purchase, Fletcher Fund and Joseph E. Hotung and Michael and Danielle Rosenberg Gifts, 1989 (1989.140); Portal from the Church of San Nicolò, San Gemini, carved 1000s, assembled 1100s or 1200s, Fletcher Fund, 1947 (47.100.45); Mosaic Panel, Louis Comfort Tiffany (designer), Tiffany Glass Company (maker), ca. 1890–91, Gift of Paul and Chloe Nassau, 2000 (2000.623); Saltillo Serape, 1860–1900, Mexico, Mesoamerica, Saltillo, Gift of Sally Hart Sheehy, 2002 (2002.471.2); Pair of Minbar Doors, ca. 1325–30, Egypt, Cairo, Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891 (91.1.2064); Cone-shaped vase with geometric decoration, ca. late 5th millennium B.C., Chalcolithic, Iran, Tall-i Bakun, Rogers Fund and Gifts of Lucy W. Drexel, Theodore M. Davis, Helen Miller Gould, Albert Gallatin, Egypt Exploration Fund and Egyptian Research Account, by exchange, 1950 (51.25.22); Coptic Textile Fragment, late 3rd–5th century, Egypt, Purchase by subscription, 1889 (89.18.95); Prestige Panel, 20th century, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sankuru River region, Kuba peoples, Gift of William B. Goldstein, 2001 (2001.271.7); Kero, late 15th–early 16th century, Ecuador or Peru, Inca, Rogers Fund, 2003 (2003.272); Tombak, late 19th century, Iran (Persia), Persia, The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889 (89.4.1310); Bag (Reticule), 1818–30, Mexican, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Dwight W. Morrow, Jr., Constance Morrow Morgan, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1956 (2009.300.1902); Bag, 1923, Gift of Madame Lilliana Teruzzi, 1972 (1972.30.21); White cross-lined ware bowl with geometric patterns, ca. 3700–3650 B.C., Predynastic, Naqada I, Egypt, Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910 (10.130.1174); Wearing Blanket, 1860–70, Navajo, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.1039); Storage jar decorated with mountain goats, ca. 3800–3700 B.C., Chalcolithic, Central Iran, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1959 (59.52); Khurasan Carpet Fragment, second half 16th century, Northeastern Iran, Khurasan, Fletcher Fund, 1991 (1991.154); Glass aryballos (perfume bottle), late 6th–5th century B.C. classical, Greek, Eastern Mediterranean, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1881 (81.10.297); Morion, late 16th century, Gift of William H. Riggs, 1913 (14.25.650). Hands: Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560–1609). Saint John the Baptist Bearing Witness, ca. 1600, Gift of Fabrizio Moretti and Adam Williams, in honor of Everett Fahy, 2009 (2009.252); Francesco di Cecco Ghissi (Italian, active 1359–74). Saint John the Evangelist with Acteus and Eugenius, ca. 1370, Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, 1969 (69.280.2); Francesco di Cecco Ghissi (Italian, active 1359–74). Saint John the Evangelist Raises Satheus to Life, ca. 1370, Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, 1969 (69.280.1); Martínez Montañés (Spanish, 1568–1649). Saint John the Baptist, ca. 162–30, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1963 (63.40); Jacques-Louis David (French, 1748–1825). The Death of Socrates, 1787, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1931 (31.45); Ralph Earl (American, 1751–1801). Marinus Willet, ca. 1791. Bequest of George Willett Van Nest, 1916 (17.87.1); Hugh R. Hopgood (Egyptian Expedition Graphic Section). Priestesses and Dancers, Tomb of Senet, ca. 1970–1917 B.C. Rogers Fund, 1930 (30.4.160); Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Adam, modeled 1880 or 1881, cast 1910. Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910 (11.173.1).
