Long overlooked since Renzo Piano’s 2006 expansion moved the main entrance to Madison Avenue, the Morgan Library and Museum’s southern façade will become the focus of a light show under a $12.5m project to enhance the building’s exterior. The museum says that its current landscaping, essentially a simple lawn, does little to engage the public: today it unveiled plans to introduce a new garden that would draw visitors onto paths of bluestone patterned after the library’s floor. In a scheme overseen by the landscape designer Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, the Morgan plans to introduce beds of periwinkle flanking the library’s loggia and brightly hued herbaceous beds. A Roman sarcophagus, a Roman funerary stele and two Renaissance corbels drawn from the museum’s holdings will add to the contemplative atmosphere. But the show-stopper is the illumination from Tillett Lighting Design Associates: the museum promises to create an “enchanting, moonlit nocturnal environment” that will throw features of its palazzo-like façade into relief.
In the frameblog
The Morgan maps out a garden of enchantment
Plan calls for colourful beds, outdoor antiquities and a lighting scheme to showcase the museum’s architecture
2 October 2019
![A rendering of the Morgan Library & Museum's planned lighting scheme Courtesy of Tillett Lighting Design](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/cxgd3urn/production/dcee58aa5ca3b7dcc5eb148fe1f55f87411685c1-1600x819.jpg?w=1200&h=614&fit=crop&auto=format)
A rendering of the Morgan Library & Museum's planned lighting scheme Courtesy of Tillett Lighting Design