M. HECKSCHER: The space you are now standing in was designed specifically to house the Temple of Dendur. In the late 1960s, due to the construction of a large dam along the Nile, the government of Egypt gave this temple to the United States government, which awarded it to The Metropolitan Museum.

The firm, Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates, was responsible for the glass enclosure and design for this space. Architect Kevin Roche:

KEVIN ROCHE: We felt very strongly that it should be displayed in daylight and that it should be oriented as it was oriented in its original location.Which is to say that the front of the entrance gate to the temple was facing East, and the temple was oriented toward the East.We also felt that it was important for visitors to understand the relationship of the temple to the water.

M. HECKSCHER: One of the challenges of museum architecture is creating spaces that are appropriate for the works of art they display.Architects also have to consider what is appropriate for a given site--in this case, what is appropriate for a building located in Central Park.

KEVIN ROCHE: We decided that a building which was..more greenhouse like, more conservatory like, would be much more appropriate when viewed from the park than a neoclassic building extending the facade of the McKim, Mead, and White, because the urban, street facade seemed inappropriate and much too monumental for the park, so we reduced the whole sense of the building in the park and we introduced this idea of the conservatory, the glass façade, the glass roofs, and all of that. to make the building the right kind of architecture one would use in a park setting.

M. HECKSCHER: By using a glass enclosure, the architects also provided a very dramatic view of the temple at night.