RELATED: Photos from the Municipal Art Society Gala

“All of us know this room from looking down at precious objects. We wanted you to look up,” the chairman of the Municipal Art Society, Philip Howard, said at the Seventh Regiment Armory on Monday night as he introduced the performance art group Antigravity.

Moments later, women wrapped in white sheets dangled from the rafters of the drill hall, giving everyone a chance to see a familiar place in a new way. In 1993, when Wade Thompson began imagining the Armory as a city treasure, he was actually looking down at it. What he saw from a window in his apartment disturbed him: a tarp protecting the interior from rain.

Soon he enlisted his friend, Elihu Rose, in what became a 13-year effort to preserve, restore, and transform the Armory — its roof, its rooms designed by Stanford White, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and the Herter Brothers, and its history. The duo first worked on a Municipal Art Society committee, which later became the Seventh Regiment Armory Conservancy.

“We deserve a medal for perseverance,” Mr. Rose said. “When we started this project, Major Deegan was a second lieutenant.”

Mr. Wade was focused on the future: “We promise you it will be an innovative, dynamic world class venue for the arts.” Some future presenters include the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Lincoln Center Festival, and the New York City Opera.

The chairwoman of the city’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission, Agnes Gund, presented the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal to Messrs. Thompson and Rose.

Mr. Howard summed up the sentiment of the room in his remarks to the honorees: “All of your friends bathe in the reflected glory of this great accomplishment.”

The event raised $1 million for the Municipal Art Society.

agordon@nysun.com