Landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand, the American Museum of Natural History, and NYC Parks will highlight how investments in historic neighborhood parks empower our great public spaces to serve more New Yorkers. Following a park tour, ticket holders will receive vouchers that include access to the Museum’s new Richard Gilder Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation.

Theodore Roosevelt Park is home to the American Museum of Natural History and the wider Upper West Side community. Originating with a romantic, meandering landscape conceived by Calvert Vaux, the park shares a legacy with nearby Central Park. Over time, the park has evolved as the city and the neighborhood surrounding it changed and grew. In the summer of 2023, landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand completed a highly sensitive but expansive design of the western portion of the park undertaken as part of the Museum’s Gilder Center project.

In creating its new Gilder Center, which also opened in 2023, the Museum worked with NYC Parks, which manages Theodore Roosevelt Park, to make significant improvements to the park area surrounding it. Reed Hilderbrand was selected to join architects Studio Gang and a Park Working Group to complete the design. The Park Working Group was formed in the early stages of the project and included representatives from the offices of local elected officials, City agencies, and community groups.

Highlights from the park’s renewal include an enlarged Margaret Mead Green; 15 new benches; preservation of iconic heritage trees and the addition of 23 new canopy and understory trees; and a new path leading from Columbus Avenue to the Gilder Center.

The tour site is ADA accessible. The guide will utilize a speaker to address the tour. Tour pamphlets will be available.