The Roof Garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is a nested place: a garden atop a museum within Fredrick Law Olmsted’s masterpiece of Central Park; green above, around, and within. Each summer an artist is commissioned to install a major work that complements this setting. In 2014, Future Green was invited to help realize the installation of renowned artist Dan Graham with landscape architect Günther Vogt, entitled Suburban Rainbow Dreaming.

Future Green Studio was responsible for taking the artistic vision of Graham’s ‘Two-Way Mirror Walkabout Hedge’ and making it into a reality. Making a complex vision buildable is an iterative, responsive process. We worked back and forth between Graham, the Met, and specialists to test prototypes, create construction details, and finally fabricate and install the exhibition.

The design utilized curved, two-way mirror glass to cast viewers back onto themselves and borrow scenery from the New York City skyline and Central Park, creating a dialogue between urban and suburban fabrics. Eight-foot hedges frame views into Central Park. Visitors to the pavilion experience the surface textures of a blue-brushed limestone mound as they examine their reflections, transitioning to a carpet of synthetic lawn that spans the entire rooftop.