Boston, MA, – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston recently revealed the final, detailed plans for an extension to its historic Museum building, which was designed by Gardner herself with assistance from architect Willard Sears and constructed in 1902.
The new wing, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano and the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Burt Hill, is expected to open in early 2012. The 70,000sf extension will relocate programs and functions that have unduly crowded the historic building, putting pressure on the landmark structure and its magnificent collections and diminishing the visitor experience.
“The Gardner Museum differs from other museums in that it is a work of art in totality—designed by its founder to be a home of the muses, to embrace all the arts using its immense collection as inspiration,” said Anne Hawley, Norma Jean Calderwood Director. “Renzo Piano has responded to the Museum’s need for functional spaces by creating a conversation with Isabella Gardner’s Museum. His answer is the working home for the arts.”
The use of glass, natural light, and transparency in the new entrance and first floor will afford visitors a sense of a museum-at-work as they enter the building. The design has created, for the first time, opportunities to walk through the Museum’s greenhouses, to interact with Artists-in-Residence living on site, and to observe educational classes and workshops from the lobby. The openness of the space has been conceived to encourage lounging, gathering with others, meetings, and conversation. Surrounding the first floor and visible from most areas, newly landscaped gardens are meant to encourage inquiry and exploration. All of this activity will center on preparation and anticipation for entering and experiencing the historic buildings, galleries, courtyard, and architecture.
The Gardner Museum does not label objects or artwork and has relied upon audio tours, educators, and staff to help orient the visitor. In the new wing, visitors will have additional options for orientation in a new space, named the Living Room in deference to the domestic nature of the historic building.
In the Living Room, visitors will learn about Isabella Stewart Gardner and the history of the museum she founded, the collection, and its unique installation and will browse material about the Gardner Museum’s renowned Artists-in-Residence program, past and present. Isabella Gardner also had choreographed a particular experience upon entering into her Museum courtyard. Piano’s design achieves that moment of surprise and awe by guiding visitors through a transparent connector into the cloisters alongside the courtyard.
The new wing will feature four volumes clad in patinated green copper panels that will “float” above the transparent first floor and echo the green of the gardens. These volumes will accommodate a 300 seat, in-the-round performance hall and a 2,000sf, naturally lit special exhibition gallery. Visitors will circulate through the public spaces via an open central stairway and an elevator located at the building’s core. An adjacent greenhouse structure will feature a landscape classroom, as well as two artist apartments.
The largest of these new spaces, the performance hall, is designed in collaboration with acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota of Nagata Acoustics. With seats configured in three balcony levels surrounding the central performing area, the hall will offer sophisticated acoustics while preserving the intimate experience that has long characterized the Gardner Museum’s music program.
The new wing will provide outdoor seating for the café and expanded garden spaces, for which Piano has designed new working greenhouses. A series of brick walls extending into the gardens will delineate the space and create a visual connection between the new and historic building.
The new building at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum aims to be LEED certified by the United States Green Building Council. Main components of the sustainable design are a geothermal well system, daylight harvesting, water-efficient landscaping techniques and the use of local and regional materials, which reduces the environmental impact associated with transport.
