7. There are Half-Floors in the Met Museum
McKim, Mead, and White designed the fourth phase of the museum, extending Hunt’s façade along 5th Avenue to the north and south. The architects pushed for a floor-to-floor height that was greater than Hunt’s by almost a half-floor. As you walk around the museum, look out for the staircases and ramps (particularly in Asian Art and Ancient Near Eastern Art on the second floor) that were installed to accommodate the variance.
In some stairwells, you’ll see office entrances midway between floors and strange gallery entrances off the beaten path, like the Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Gallery. Adapting the Met for handicapped access has also created idiosyncratic half-floor situations, like one that can be found in the American Wing.