Social Staircases Turn Museums Into Third Spaces, From the Met Steps to M+
Tiered seating has transitioned from being a feature at museum entrances to becoming integral to their interiors. This trend originated in 1967 with Kevin Roche's comprehensive design for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which included the iconic Met Steps. In 1999, Miuccia Prada engaged Rem Koolhaas to create the Epicenter within her Guggenheim store. A vertical piazza was crafted by Thom Mayne's Morphosis at Cooper Union. In 2006, Diller Scofidio + Renfro introduced tiered seating at ICA Boston. Herzog & de Meuron were responsible for the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2013 and the M+ Museum in Hong Kong in 2021. The Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing, designed by Dong Yugan in 2014, showcases whimsical brick seating. John Pawson's Design Museum in London reopened in November 2016, while the Studio Museum in Harlem underwent renovations by Adjaye Associates and reopened in 2025.
Key facts
- Kevin Roche's firm created the Met's centennial master plan in 1967, replacing part of the 1902 entrance with the Met Steps
- Prada Epicenter New York, designed by OMA and opened in 2001, occupies the Guggenheim's former Soho outpost
- ICA Boston, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, opened in 2006 with cantilevered top floor spanning 80 feet beyond the building's footprint
- Herzog & de Meuron designed social staircases for Pérez Art Museum Miami (2013) and M+ Museum in Hong Kong (2021)
- Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing, by Dong Yugan, opened in 2014 as a 180,000-square-foot brick-clad compound commissioned by Yan Shijie and Cao Mei
- London's Design Museum reopened in November 2016 in the former Commonwealth Institute building with a John Pawson interior
- The Studio Museum in Harlem reopened in 2025 after an eight-year renovation by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson
- The Studio Museum's reverse stoop appeared as a backdrop in a 2025 Vanity Fair photo shoot celebrating Black artists
Entities
Artists
- Kevin Roche
- Miuccia Prada
- Rem Koolhaas
- Thom Mayne
- Herzog & de Meuron
- Dong Yugan
- John Pawson
- Yan Shijie
- Cao Mei
- Tim Burton
- Stanley Kubrick
- Sarah Lucas
- William Shakespeare
- Armin Linke
- Chuck Choi
Institutions
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Prada
- OMA
- Guggenheim
- Cooper Union
- Morphosis
- Diller Scofidio + Renfro
- Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
- Berklee College of Music
- Pérez Art Museum Miami
- M+ Museum
- West Kowloon Cultural District
- Red Brick Art Museum
- Design Museum
- Commonwealth Institute
- Studio Museum in Harlem
- Adjaye Associates
- Cooper Robertson
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
- Vanity Fair
- CULTURED
- Sadie Coles HQ
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Boston
- Miami
- Hong Kong
- China
- Beijing
- London
- United Kingdom
- Harlem
- Soho
- Victoria Harbor
- West Kowloon