“At many institutions, special exhibitions represent the most current thinking about art and curation,” says Hollein, “while collections are often decades out of date.” The Met, says Hollein, ” is committed to displaying its collections in a contemporary way. We take seriously not just how we collect, but how we display. What are the narratives, the stories we tell? “

“For the Ancient Near East and Cypriot Art galleries on the second floor of the museum, NADAAA is exploring ways to bring the two collections — which had previously been separated — into dialogue, both spatially and curatorially. They are working with the notion of a torus or donut-shaped path flowing from one area to another and are employing a monumental ramp to stitch together the two collections and turn an ADA problem into a design feature. Linking to nearby galleries, such as those for Asian art on the north side of the Great Hall and Islamic art and European paintings to the south, the $40 million project will present a transcultural narrative. “We’re making connections across time, space, and culture that had once been obscured,” says Tehrani. A curving, ribbonlike ceiling will be suspended from above to define circulation and hide mechanical equipment, lighting, sprinklers, and other service systems. Tehrani is treating floors as “carpets” with sometimes richly hued materials such as terrazzo to evoke the colors that once adorned some of the sculptures and reliefs in the collection.” We want to create an immersive experience and establish a relationship between the human body and the individual artifacts on display,” says Tehrani.”

-Clifford A. Pearson, Architectural Record

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Nader speaks to Sam Cochran on NADAAA’s ongoing renovations at the Met during a behind-the-scenes tour: “How can connections be made that overcome archeological penchants for divisions?” So asks Nader Tehrani, whose Boston-based firm was selected to renovate the 15,000 square-foot galleries for Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Art, slated to open in 2026. His design does just that, forging meaningful links among the cultures of this vast region. What had been a daisy chain of discrete rooms will be a continuous loop, with a toroid plan that eliminates walls and, with the addition of a ramp, improves accessibility. “The 19th century wanted to taxonomize everything,” Tehrani reflects. “History is never closed.” Vaulting, at turns rippling and broadly arching, will hint at chronological breaks and unify themes while nodding to ancient building technologies. Materials, too, break from neutral modernist tropes, with allusions to the lapis lazuli and bronze of artifacts. And four nonhierarchical entrances will extend dialogues to periods and places beyond the immediate galleries. “there are fluid connections from one space and one history to another.”

-Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest

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“Arts and cultural institutions are living sites of memory. They create narratives of the past informed by the present. The architect’s ability to mediate between the two is crucial.” -AN’s Malika Leiper writes on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s current architectural and curatorial undertakings.

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“The transformational design walks a delicate line, as Tehrani admits, between framing the pieces—metallurgy, textiles, sarcophagi, statuary—in their correct capacity and giving the context its material specificity, without trying to upstage the work. […] But the project is part of a bigger discussion that rescripts the narrative of ancient cultures. By attempting to evoke these various realities through character, affect, color, materiality, and immersive space, NADAAA’s intervention enters into the complex discussion of what role a museum plays in today’s world.” – Patrick McGraw

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