designwire daily | Renzo Piano’s Addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Opens January 19

Renzo Piano’s Addition to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Opens January 19

by Arlene Hirst | Tuesday, January 17, 2012 | 7 Comments

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Renzo Piano

Evening exterior view of the new Special Exhibition Gallery in the new wing of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The Living Room visitor orientation space sits below.

Italian architect Renzo Piano’s new building for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a 70,000 square foot, $115 million structure, is an open, airy, light-filled box that stands respectfully behind the Venetian-style palazzo, erected in 1902 by Gardner as a repository for her extensive collection of fine and decorative art. Boston’s beloved Gardner, commonly referred to as “The Palace,” contains more than 2,500 paintings, furniture, rare books, tapestries and decorative art with works that range from Titian and Rembrandt to Degas and John Singer Sargent.

Evening view of the façade of the new Evans Way Park entrance of the new wing. Outdoor art installation “Ailanthus” by Stefano Arienti.

The impetus for the expansion was the need to save the building, which was showing serious signs of age. The Gardner has always had a strong music program and a dedication to showing the works of young contemporary artists, but had very cramped, makeshift space for these activities. The new structure provides a jewel of a concert hall—a square cube that rises four stories, and an equally dramatic gallery space—another 36-foot cube—designed for special exhibits of visiting artists. It also houses a gift shop and a café as well as two apartments for visiting artists.

Evening exterior view of the new Evans Way Park lobby entrance of the wing with the Arienti in view.

Gardner had stipulated in her will that if her vision was in any way compromised, the mansion and all of its contents were to be sold. Piano’s solution was to erect a separate structure, a striking composition in clear glass and patinated copper that rises to match, not to pass, the palace’s height. Piano connected the two structures with a 50-foot-long glassed-in passageway. The addition has become the new entrance—the only change Piano and the senior project architect and partner, Emanuela Baglietto made to the old building.

View from a balcony of Calderwood Hall. A view of the new central grand staircase.

The Gardner director Anne Hawley’s mandate to Piano was to create a work of art. The final decision about if he succeeded will be left to the public to decide.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located at 280 The Fenway, Boston. For more information, visit gardnermuseum.org or call 617-566-1401.

A view of the new Living Room visitor orientation space.

All images by Nic Lehoux; courtesy of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

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7 comments

shady

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 03:19 pm | Permalink

very special
Bobbi Keene

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 03:23 pm | Permalink

I would have liked to see more of the museum. This photos reveal nothing concerning an art museum. Again the interior designer picked out the carpet, sofa and light fixtures. I think this museum is ridiculous. A lot of high ceilings with nothing in them but a high energy bill.

Not impressed
upton

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 03:25 pm | Permalink

hmmmm. cold. post-modern. is it innovative? exciting? new?

museum boards hire these starchitects — soooo boring. pei did this 20plus years ago in paris at the louvre.

here’s another hilarious museum board decision:

Aspen Art Museum Forbids Leader of Occupy Aspen to Enter Property
By Michael H. Miller 12/16/11 11:17am

Galerist NY

Lee Mulcahy, an artist and the leader behind the Occupy Aspen movement, has been told by police that he can no longer set foot on the site of the future home of the redesigned Aspen Art Museum. Museum officials told the Aspen Times that Mr. Mulcahy had “replaced museum signs with his own signs,” posting “for sale” signs on trailers on the property.
Mr. Mulcahy denies this, though he admitted to posting different signs at an earlier time. Police have not charged him with anything, but an Aspen police officer did have this to say: “I made it very clear to Mulcahy that he was not allowed to return to the Art Museum property or else he would be arrested for trespassing, and Mulcahy told me that he understood and would not go onto the property again.”

Aspen, a wealthy town popular with celebrities as a vacationing destination, is not really the place where one would expect people to be big fans of the shenanigans of the 99 percent. Occupy Aspen, by the way, sounds like a pretty humble affair. Mr Mulcahy refers to the movement in the Aspen Times as “all 8 of us.”

Follow Michael H. Miller via RSS.

Tweet topics: Occupy, Aspen Art Museum, Lee Mulcahy
jerry

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 03:48 pm | Permalink

I agree with most of the comments. The article includes no indication of the relationship of the new wing to the existing building. How about a plan?
vesna bricelj

Posted Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 10:21 pm | Permalink

It does no justice to the idiosyncratic, very personal museum that Isabella Gardner built. It doesn’t even attempt to echo her sense of fantasy, or the thought that she put into every stone.

Another chic, anonymous glass garage… It certainly won’t upstage the original.
C

Posted Monday, January 23, 2012 at 04:32 pm | Permalink

Unimpressive, uninspired, and uncreative! Unfortunately it looks as though Piano’s best work is behind him. I’m continually disappointed. The Evans Way Park lobby entrance looks like a grandiose bus stop. And the Arienti artwork nothing more than some large-scale corporate art. Don’t get me started on the Living Room visitor orientation space, and those red barrel shade lights, and cliche right out of the catalog furniture selections.
Celia Rochford

Posted Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 02:01 pm | Permalink

Where is the collection?