Home to several cultural institutions, the architecturally complementary buildings, which take up most of a city block, are arranged in two parallel rows facing each other across a common plaza.

Although the 157th Street station on the New York City Subway's 1 train is one block away, the complex's location considerably north of Midtown Manhattan has resulted in a perceived detriment to easy access for visitors.

[1] Archer Huntington chose the location at a time when the two centuries old northward march of fashionable residences and cultural institutions seemed likely to transform the largely rural area.

The widespread adoption of the elevator and steel framing at this time, however, led Manhattan real estate to begin to develop vertically instead and New York's other great cultural institutions failed to follow suit – in fact, most of the organizations which located on Audubon Terrace were headed by or strongly connected to Huntington.

[2] These include a large equestrian statue of the legendary Spanish knight El Cid (1927), in front of the Hispanic Society Library.