The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City. Drawing in two parts, 2003. Christo (American, b. Bulgaria, 1935). Pencil, charcoal, pastel, wax crayon, technical data, fabric sample, aerial photograph, and tape on paper; 15 x 96 in. and 42 x 96 in. (38 x 244 cm and 106.6 x 244 cm). Collection Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Photograph: Wolfgang Volz. © Christo 2003.

The Metropolitan's Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, which offers spectacular views across Central Park to the Manhattan skyline, is open for an unprecedented sixteen winter days (weather permitting) during the period that The Gates is installed. Normally, the Cantor Roof Garden is closed to the public from November through late April.

From the vantage point of the Roof Garden, visitors can enjoy a dramatic bird's-eye view of this extraordinary work of art and cultural phenomenon, which has been twenty-six years in the development and approval phases. The monumental undertaking—the husband-and-wife artist team's first temporary outdoor work of art in New York, their home of over forty years—consists of 7,500 saffron-colored vinyl gates (each sixteen feet in height and hung with saffron fabric panels) placed at twelve-foot intervals over twenty-three miles of pedestrian walkways that lace the park.

Last year, from April 6 through July 25, the Metropolitan presented a special exhibition of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates, featuring preparatory drawings and collages by Christo, photographs, maps, and other materials related to the evolution of The Gates since 1979. Recalling the installation, Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum, commented: "We were delighted to present the blueprints, if you will, of this far-reaching project, which the visiting public was able to preview here at the Museum. Now, at long last, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's monumental installation will see fruition. This work of massive scope will surely galvanize the interest of both New Yorkers and visitors from around the nation as well as the world, and constitute an unforgettable tribute to the grandeur of Central Park, and a reaffirmation of the continuity of culture and the centrality of art to the life of our city."