Arthur Ross Terrace opens Saturday

Real Estate Weekly, Sept 20, 2000

On Feb. 1 9, the Rose Center for Earth and Space was unveiled in a stunning display of architectural imagination. Displaying the same inventiveness in design, the American Museum of Natural History announced the debut of the Arthur Ross Terrace, a spectacular, new, one-acre public space in Manhattan.

Renowned landscape artist Kathryn Gustafson's design was inspired by an illustration of the multiple conical shadows cast by the moon. Developed in collaboration with Anderson & Ray, Inc. and Polshek Partnership Architects, LLP, the Terrace includes wedge-shaped planetary 'shadows' of stone that appear to be 'cast' from the planetarium sphere across the plaza. The terrace, which will be opened to the public on Sept. 23, is rich in Ginko and Pagoda trees and a variety of colorful, blooming ground cover, with sloping lawns and a central plaza with water jets, built over a new public garage on 81 St. On the Terrace, there are accommodations for visitors such as large wooden benches that double as activity tables, an d cafe tables and chairs set amongst the trees on the upper terrace, facing the Rose Center. In addition to the abundant foliage, the central plaza incorporates water jets, fiber optic lights, and hundreds of tiny mirrors set in the stone surface, reflecting the changing sky above and creating the appearance of the scintillation of stars in the well-known pattern of the Orion star cluster.