American Museum of Natural History’s Theodore Roosevelt Park

Theodore Roosevelt Park is reimagined in conversation with the American Museum of Natural History’s new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation while retaining its powerful purpose as neighborhood amenity for daily life.  Evolving spatial and material themes from the 19th century’s great public spaces, the project reinvents commonplace park elements into integrated systems that perform to meet the imperatives of today’s environment and 21st century urban living.

Boldly proclaiming its publicness, the project reconnects the park to the vibrance of the surrounding city and welcom es people to a gracious new entry to the Museum of Natural History. Striving for fit with its history and context, the design was carefully calibrated to make space among a mature canopy of trees. Here, architecture and landscape evolve in true and equal dialogue, each improving the experience of the other. 

Respecting Legacy and Embracing Change

Originally designed by Calvert Vaux, Romantic strolling paths unified the park experience. Incremental museum expansions fragmented the design, inserting formal paths that reinforced service access and axial building entries at the expense of the park’s continuity. In the new park, the main entrance is triple in size and provides a gradual descent from the street into the park.

A sweeping east-west path now flows diagonally, connecting a series of seating and gathering areas, a terrace at the Nobel Monument, an enlarged Margaret Mead Green, and a generous Museum entry plaza. A subtle play of figure and ground shifts park paths into broad planted islands where notable trees are safely protected and space is made for new trees to grow and provide shade in the future. 

The design team made the choice to embrace principles of 19th century American landscape architecture that are now synonymous with New York’s public spaces to trumpet the site’s continued publicness. They then worked with NYC Parks to modify their standard details and furnishings to achieve a more modern and refined design expression, integrate green infrastructure, and enhance durability. The team sited the museum’s new addition and oriented its façade to visually open to the park, rather than the street, and engage in dialog with the Romantic forms of the landscape. 

Preserving the Park's Iconic Canopy

Preservation of mature trees was a top priority for all. The pervasive high canopy of elms and oaks, yields dappled, cooling shade — one of the park’s most beautiful, character-defining features. The design team carefully oriented the building façade to visually open to the park and nestle it among the majestic trees. A subtle play of figure and ground near the entry reorients the scale of park paths with paving that expands to frame planted islands where notable trees are safely protected and new ones can grow into the park’s future canopy. 

Enriching Daily Life

Although it houses a cultural destination drawing people from around the world, this is at heart a deeply loved and well used neighborhood park. To tailor design aspirations to the community’s true needs, the landscape architect collaborated with a Park Working Group comprised of representatives of elected officials, City agencies (including NYC Parks), and community members. This regular and frequent process of intensive collaboration and co-design created common ground to meet the Museum’s mission and the goals of the community.