The New American Wing Part 2: The Charles Engelhard Court and the Period Rooms

In this second phase of a major, three-phase reordering and upgrading of the American Wing, one of the Museum’s best-loved spaces--The Charles Engelhard Court, showcasing sculptures, stained-glass windows, and other treasures of American art overlooking Central Park--has been transformed to bette... Read more

In this second phase of a major, three-phase reordering and upgrading of the American Wing, one of the Museum’s best-loved spaces—The Charles Engelhard Court, showcasing sculptures, stained-glass windows, and other treasures of American art overlooking Central Park—has been transformed to better display the works on view and to facilitate public access. Renovations to the balcony include new glass barrier walls and a rethinking of the ceramics, glass, silver, and jewelry installations. The addition of a mezzanine level adds over 3,000 square feet of exhibition space and houses the newly announced promised gift of Robert A. Ellison Jr. of ceramics of the United States, 1876–1956. Many of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century period rooms have been moved or replaced to improve circulation, and visitors can now access them more readily via a new glass-walled public elevator. The first phase, New Classical Galleries on the first floor of the American Wing, opened to the public in 2007; the third and final phase is scheduled for completion in 2011.