When the plaza was last redesigned, in 1968, attention was paid to vehicular access, leaving sidewalks wide enough for cars, but now, with the Met’s attendance having more than doubled and with it the amount of foot traffic around the plaza, the aim is to make the space more people-friendly. (Although, to be fair, most visitors even now are probably more impressed by the grandeur of the museum’s building and its entrance than bothered by the “austere and forbidding” nature of the plaza.)

The plan calls for replacing the two long fountains that now flank the front steps with a pair of smaller square ones, made of granite, to be placed closer to the steps, thereby allowing clearer paths to the museum’s 81st and 83rd Street entrances, which are on street level and which many people don’t even know exist. Each fountain will be programmed by computer to provide a variety of water patterns during the warm months. In winter they will become reflecting pools, warmed by recycling steam to prevent freezing. Two sides of each fountain will serve as benches.

The 44 ailing trees at either end of the plaza will be replaced with more than twice that number. There will be shaded allées of little-leaf linden trees to the north and south, clipped as topiaries, similarly to the trees at the Palais Royal in Paris. Outside the 81st and 83rd Street entrances, small groves of London plane trees will be planted to create paths that will guide visitors into the entrances. They will be pruned to maximize shade in the summer and sunlight in the winter. Together these plantings are also supposed to soften noise.

Ornamental shrubs and herbaceous flowers will be placed along the base of the building on either side of the central staircase, resembling those seen in photographs of the museum taken in the early-to-mid 20th century.