Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Roof Garden (Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden) is a rooftop terrace, art venue and restaurant open in the warm weather months at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Roof Garden offers "breathtaking" views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline. The garden is the gift of philanthropists Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, founder and chairman of securities firm Cantor Fitzgerald. The Garden was opened to the public on August 1, 1987.

Exhibitions
Every summer since 1998 the roof garden has hosted a single-artist exhibition. The artists have been:Ellsworth Kelly (1998), Magdalena Abakanowicz (1999), David Smith (2000), Joel Shapiro (2001), Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen (2002), Roy Lichtenstein (2003), Andy Goldsworthy (2004), Sol LeWitt (2005), Cai Guo-Qiang (2006), Frank Stella (2007), Jeff Koons (2008), Roxy Paine (2009) and Big Bambú by Doug and Mike Starn (2010).

Views
The Roof Garden offers "spectacular" views of the Manhattan skyline form a vantage point high above Central Park. Some regard the breathtaking views as "the best in Manhattan." Art critics have been known to complain that the view "distracts" from the art on exhibition. New York Times art critic Ken Johnson complains that the "breathtaking, panoramic views of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline" creates "an inhospitable site for sculpture" that "discourages careful, contemplative looking." Writer Mindy Aloff describes the Roof Garden as "the loveliest airborne space I know of in New York."

Cafe
The cafe and bar are popular for romantic summer dates. New York magazine rates the Roof Garden as  "one of the finest pick-up spots in Manhattan." The New York Times describes the cafe as a place "to sit and drink (with) views that mesmerize, while being shaded from the sun."