Gardens
Museum Tower Roof Terrace
Project Information
Located on the roof the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum Tower Roof Terrace project creates a conversation with the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden below. With this small steel pavilion, FdM:Arch pays homage to the International styles of Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
The pavilion dramatically frames the city from eight stories above the street, a non-standard height that places occupants right in the center of the city and delivers a unique, unforgettable experience. A twisting stainless steel and brass sculpture by Forrest Myers, named “Chinatown” to reference the whiff of smoke off of Faye Dunaway’s cigarette, connects the roof to the iconic sculptures in the Rockefeller Sculpture Garden below.
The roof terrace is an outdoor room that is discovered progressively. The copse of birch trees draws one to the north and the overlook of the MoMA garden below. The pavilion’s perforated metal panels create a screen providing glimpses of the Myers sculpture, which anchors the terrace’s east end. An L-shaped wall divides the vertical experience of Manhattan to the south from the horizontal view to the north.
Project Images
Process Images
Project Details
- Place New York, NY
- Date 2005
- Client The Museum Tower
- Area 5,000 SF
- Design Architect Francois deMenil Architect, PC
- Architect of Record Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, PC
- Structural Engineer Severud & Associates
- Landscape Architect Francois deMenil Architect, PC
- Lighting Gary Gordon
- Lighting Designer Fisher Marantz Stone
- Contractor Richter & Ratner