Jeffrey L. Daly served as the Chief Designer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from 1979-2006. From 2006 to 2009 he worked as the senior design advisor to the museum director for capital and special projects.
During his tenure the Metropolitan has expanded or renovated nearly continuously, and Daly was the designer in charge of many of the museum's most well-known public spaces, including the galleries of Greek and Roman art,[1][2][3][4] the European Paintings galleries, the Ancient Near East Galleries, and the renovation of the Egyptian wing. In addition to designing most of the permanent galleries, he was exhibition designer of hundreds of special exhibits ranging across all departments. In 2008 he designed the special exhibit celebrating the highlights of 30 years of Met collecting to honor the retirement of the director Philippe de Montebello.[5][6] During his early years at the Metropolitan he worked closely with Diana Vreeland on a series of special exhibits for the Costume Institute.
He received a masters degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology.