The Met Museum’s Bid to Add More Entrance Doors Gets Thumbs-Up From CB8

The Metropolitan Museum of Art wants to expand the single door at its E 83rd St. entrance into a major three-door entranceway, while also overhauling a number of cooling towers that sit atop the majestic 144 year-old building, located on Fifth Ave.

Brett Gaillard, of the Met, gave an Oct. 21 presentation to the Landmarks Committee of Community Board 8 on the subject. She called both projects “mission critical,” and added that they “allow us to provide access to our visitors and sustainability for our building infrastructure.”

The Landmark Committee gave both plans a thumbs-up recommendation, which was seconded when the full board met on Oct. 23. Community Board votes do not have binding power, which is vested in bodies such as the City Council and Landmarks Preservation Commission, but their opinions often contribute to final approval.

The doorway move is technically a restoration of the museum’s early twentieth-century design. The museum moved from its original E. 14th St. location to Fifth Ave. in 1880.

The Met also wants to overhaul and heighten the cooling towers on top of its building, in order to reduce electricity usage and meet sustainability targets. The museum noted that rising levels of rainfall in Central Park, caused by climate change, is necessitating a shift in museum layout that requires the redesigned cooling system.

Henry Miller of Beyer Blinder Belle–one of two architectural firms working on the project–noted that the Met was designated as a NYC landmark in 1967, and became a national landmark in 1986.

The restoration of the original three-door design is oriented around “looking to reduce crowding and queuing on the plaza,” Miller said. The new E. 83rd St. entrance will draw from the main entrance’s doors, for “architectural context,” he added.

Nathan Rich, of the firm Peterson Rich, specified that the new doors will also echo the main doors by being bronze. There will be “technological requirements” that will make the doors bigger than the W. 82nd St. ones, such as a lit sign and a push button. These will be included for the purpose of complying with accessibility laws.

Michael Wetstone, also of Beyer Blinder Belle, elaborated on the taller chiller towers. They are also positioned around E. 83rd St., albeit set on the roof. They will have an obscuring “screen wall” that should only become visible from E. 83rd St. proper, and not from the 5th Avenue plaza, Wetsone explained. Visible changes to the exterior of a landmark, after all, can merit questions and concerns from landmarking authorities.

The new cooling towers are essential, Westone said, because the museum’s HVAC system is now “flood-prone,” due to the aforementioned increase in rainfall. The internal reorganization of HVAC machinery, by moving it a floor upward, will necessitate a revamped rooftop cooling system. Their taller height is attributable to the use of gravity to achieve energy savings.

As to why else this should interest the public, Westone noted that chilled water “is piped to all the HVAC systems in all the different wings, so that the galleries can be kept at a constant 70 degrees & 50 percent humidity, which is a museum standard.” In other words, if the HVAC system fails, the paintings in one of the most iconic art museums in the world could be exposed to damaging conditions. The Met’s collection boasts works such as Johannes Vermeer’s “Study of a Young Woman” and Jacques-Louis David’s “The Death of Socrates”–masterpieces that attract international visitors.

David Helpern, the chair of the Landmarks Committee, was effusive about the presentation. He described it as “very clear, very thorough, [and] very understandable.” No members of the public were on hand to provide comment.

Elisabeth Ashby, another CB8 member, said that she found the proposed E. 83rd St. entrance “well-designed.” She added that she liked the materials, but was curious as to whether they’d mirror the single door at the E. 81st St. entrance. Miller, the Beyer Blinder Belle representative, noted that the doors would not be “symmetrical.”

CB8 member Gayle Baron was curious as to what would be on the entrance signage, leading Nathan Rich to clarify that the “precise language” is still being considered. Gaillard, the Met rep, added that the Met would inform the Board when the details are finalized.

A few other projects were considered by CB8’s Landmarks Committee on October 21. Walter B. Melvin Architects wants to add exterior LED lighting to the sanctuary and belltower of Central Presbyterian Church, located on Park Ave. The committee blessed it by a vote of seven to one, with one abstention.

Meanwhile, proposals to alter a window louver and renovate lightwells at 1185 Park Avenue similarly passed muster with the committee.