Arthur Ross Terrace

Adjacent to the Rose Center for Earth and Space, and built over the new parking garage on 81st Street, this magnificent outdoor 47,114-square-foot public space.


© Denis Finnin, AMNH

The Terrace, rich in trees and plantings, and with sloping lawns, features a central plaza with water jets and twinkling fiber optic lights imbedded in the stone surface in the shape of the well-known Orion constellation. Visitors may relax at large wooden benches that double as "activity tables," and at cafe tables and chairs set amongst the trees on the upper terrace, facing the Rose Center.

Renowned garden designer, Kathryn Gustafson formed the concept for the Terrace after seeing an illustration of shadows cast by a lunar eclipse. The resulting design includes wedge-shaped "shadows" of stone that appear to be "cast" onto the plaza evoking a lunar eclipse, and echoing the visions of outer space in the sphere containing the Hayden Planetarium.

The Arthur Ross Terrace is open during regular Museum hours and can be entered from stairs located in the Theodore Roosevelt Park at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue, and from the Museum itself.

At 81st Street and Columbus, adjacent to the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.