Seeking Improvements

Why renovate at all? The city’s most notable recent facelift, LaGuardia Airport, comes after decades of neglect, underinvestment, dysfunction, and having become a national joke. In other words, it was about time.

The heads of the Morgan Library were moved to sink $13 million to make its gardens—until now, closed off to visitors—feel less like contemporary New York and more like imperial Rome. (Apparently, the source of this Italianate inspiration was an ancient Roman sarcophagus in the Morgan’s collection.) As for the American Museum of Natural History’s Jeanne Gang–led innovation center, the institution wanted better circulation and more space to continue conversations about issues such as climate change.

At the Storm King Art Center, a modernization project slated to finish in 2024 aims to accommodate a dramatic increase of visitors. (The pandemic, which prompted homebound people to seek out outdoor activities, was a big factor in this growth.) The addition of the Conservation, Fabrication and Maintenance Building will allow Storm King to host art residencies and…