DAVID H. KOCH PLAZA at the Metropolitan Museum of Art OLIN WLA 116 DAVID H

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$USD3.99 DAVID H. KOCH PLAZA at The Metropolitan Museum of Art OLIN WLA 116 DAVID H. KOCH PLAZA AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART | OLIN

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new, parasols for shade. Seasonal plantings have completely redesigned David H. Koch Plaza been added along the base of the building to officially opened to the public on September 10, provide color and visual interest throughout the after a major two-year reconstruction effort. year. An intricate and energy efficient lighting The massive outdoor space—which runs along palette highlights the beauty of the museum and Fifth Avenue for four city blocks—features new dynamism of the fountains, and allows visitors to fountains, paving, lighting, and trees leading to enjoy the plaza well into the evening hours. the Museum’s entrances from north and south, and seating areas for visitors. The plaza is Landscape named for David H. Koch, a Museum Trustee, At the far north and south ends of the plaza, who contributed the entire $65 million cost of the where the architecture steps forward toward project. the street, two allées of large Little Leaf Linden trees have been planted, continuing the shaded OLIN led the design to prioritize the pedestrian route along the Central Park wall and aligned to experience and create a welcoming urban the rhythm of the windows along the Museum’s destination. OLIN was supported by fountain façade facing Fifth Avenue. As they grow, the design firm Fluidity Design Consultants and trees will be pruned in the form of two aerial lighting designers L’Observatoire International, hedges, similar to the trees at the Palais Royal as well as an extensive, multi-disciplinary team in Paris. The presence of the trees is intended of specialty consultants and contractors. to create a pleasant experience along the street. Hedging the row of trees reinforces the central The new plaza offers a contemporary yet plaza’s volume and ensures the trees do not contextual response to the museum’s iconic detract from the monumentality of the Museum’s façade, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and façade. Richard Howland Hunt in 1896, with later wings by McKim, Mead and White. The grand stairs, Within the central plaza, pairs of bosques of a beloved New York City landmark, designed by London Plane trees have been planted, flanking Roche Dinkeloo and Associates in 1968, were the 81st and 83rd Street entrances. Planted on preserved. Two new fountains have replaced a square grid turned at a 45-degree angle to the the former deteriorating ones and are positioned street, the lines of these tree trunks will guide closer to the Museum’s front steps, improving pedestrians toward the doorways. Beneath the access to the street-level public entrances at bosques, shaded seating is provided, using 81st and 83rd Streets. The plaza also features lightweight movable chairs that allow users tree allées and bosques, more than doubling to arrange them as they please. These casual the former tree population and weaving in the seating areas offer clear views of the plantings verdancy of nearby Central Park. Numerous and water features of the plaza, with the activity permanent and temporary seating areas are of Fifth Avenue in the background. Additional positioned around the plaza, some featuring benches adjacent to the allées of trees provide

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further options for seating with shade provided Come twilight, the warmth of the façade’s by a series of cantilevered parasols. light contracts with the cool luminance of the fountains and surrounding landscape, enhancing Fountains the architectural components of the grand stairs The new granite fountains, designed by the and façade to create a visual hierarchy ensuring award-winning firm Fluidity Design Consultants, safe and secure passage through the plaza at will be operational year-round, bracketing the night. All of the lights are on dimmers, which can grand stairs to create an energized connection be used to control the light levels and are much between people sitting on the steps and those at more energy-efficient than the former lighting the fountains, while punctuating the long plaza design. with attractive water elements. Each fountain is a quiet square form inset with a circle that provides Environmental Sustainability seating on long stone benches along the north The plaza design attempts to reconcile the and south edges of the pools. Evenly spaced physical need for a significant area of paved plaza nozzles, mounted around the edge of the circular with the desire to employ sustainable strategies basin, orient glassy streams toward the center regarding stormwater management and the 3 of the feature. The streams will be individually urban heat island effect, two goals that are often size-controlled to display geometrical figures at odds with each other. To accomplish this, and innovative, self-generating motion patterns the trees and parasols that have been installed conceived to connect with the Museum’s historic significantly increase the square footage of architecture and the City’s contemporary spirit. shade in the plaza, thereby reducing the surface In winter, the water will be warmed by recycled temperature of the paving by as much as 25 steam for year-round use. degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, a suspended paving system allows for extensive subsurface Lighting tree pits that now collect and utilize onsite The evening ambiance of the Museum plaza stormwater that would otherwise have drained will be enhanced by the hierarchy of light on into the City’s sewer system. Excess stormwater the landscape, water features, grand stairs, and that is not captured by the subsurface tree pits façade. The previous lighting—which illuminated or the ornamental planting areas will be collected the façade unevenly by light poles across the and directed into underground detention areas street from the building—has been removed. The that hold and slowly release water into the City’s new elements, designed by the renowned lighting stormwater system. This gives significant relief design practice L’Observatoire International, are to the extreme demand put on the City’s aging mounted on the Museum’s façade and the plaza system. itself. This treats the building like a work of art, highlighting the shape and form of its cornices, molding, decorative statues, and pillars.

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Design Firm: OLIN – landscape architecture

Consultants | Water Feature Design | Fluidity Design Consultants Lighting Design | L’Observatoire International Parasols, Stone benches, New guard booths Spatial Affairs Bureau (formerly Rick Mather USA) Project & Cost management | Gorton & Associates Vehicular & Pedestrian Traffic Flow Plan | Sam Schwartz Engineering MEP, fire protection Engineering | Kohler Ronan Building Façade Consulting | WJE Engineers & Architects, P.C. Civil, Geotech, Traffic, Surveying | Langan Engineering and Environmental Services Environmental Consulting | AKRF Food Service Operations | Jacobs Doland Structural Engineer | Robert Silman Associates Inc. irrigation | Northern Designs Code consultant, permitting | Milrose Consultants Inc. Arborist | Urban Arborists soils consulting | Urban Trees & Soils Signage Design | Entro General Contractor | RCDolner

Text Credit | OLIN / The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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