About: The Museum's Building

The Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the forebear of the Brooklyn Museum, was conceived in the nineteenth century as the focal point of a planned cultural, recreational, and educational district for the burgeoning city of Brooklyn. Although the scope of that envisioned complex of parks, gardens, and buildings changed after the once-independent Brooklyn was absorbed into New York City in 1898, many features of the plan were eventually realized and are reflected in what can be seen today. In the area of land once designated as the Brooklyn Institute Triangle can be found not only the Brooklyn Museum but also such other institutions and facilities as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Prospect Park Zoo, Mount Prospect Park, and the Central Library of the Brooklyn Public Library system. Just beyond the western edge of the Institute Triangle complex stands the monumental entrance to Prospect Park, marked by the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch (1892) in the center of Grand Army Plaza.

It was as part of the vision of a cultural complex that plans were first made to construct a large museum building, under the energetic leadership of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences president John B. Woodward (1835−1896). The original design by the architects McKim, Mead & White was meant to house comprehensive collections of art, natural history, and science objects, as well as myriad educational and research activities. The ambitious building plan, had it been fully realized, would have produced the largest single museum structure in the world.