The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has entered the final stages of construction with workers applying finishes in advance of the January 19th debut. Connected to the back of the museum’s original building by a glass walkway, the addition, of the new structure relieves the original building of ancillary spaces that had been squeezed into it over 70 years as a public museum.
Piano’s 70,000-square-foot addition includes a performing arts space and a gallery, as well as a new entrance, a restaurant, administrative offices, education spaces, conservation labs, a greenhouse, and apartments for the museum’s artist-in-residence program. The older structure will be primarily devoted to displaying the collection, which includes important work by Rembrandt, Titian, and a who’s who of old masters through Impressionism.
When it decided to go forward with the project in 2004, the Gardner’s board formed a selection committee, but Piano initially declined to enter the running. “Of everyone we asked, only Rafael Moneo and Piano said no,” says the museum’s director Anne Hawley. The group had compiled a shortlist of prospective designers—including Tokyo-based SANAA, Phoenix’s Will Bruder, and Boston’s own William Rawn—when Piano changed his mind. (According to Hawley, he was persuaded by Raymond Nasher whose eponymous Dallas sculpture center Piano designed.) After a trip to Texas to see the Nasher and the Menil Collection, the committee threw out its list and settled on the Italian architect.
CREDITS.-
Project Team.
Design Architect.- Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Architect of Record.- Burt Hill
Geothermal Design.- Allied Consulting Engineering Services, Inc.
Engineer.- Buro Happold, Structural and MEP.
Exterior Wall System Design.- Front Inc.
Audio Visual Design.- Harvey Marshall Berling Associates.
Code Engineer.- Hughes Associates, Inc.
Geotechnical Consultant.- McPhail Associates, Inc.
Acoustician.- Nagata Acoustics.
Civil Engineer.- Nitsch Engineering.
Conservation Lab Consultant.- Samuel Anderson Architects.
Cost Consultant.- Stuart-Lynn Company.
Graphic Design Consultant.- 2x4, Inc.
Owner’s Representative.- Paratus Group.
Construction Manager.- Shawmut Design and Construction.
"The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum opened to the public in 1903. As the Museum has grown to include contemporary exhibitions and special event programs, the new building is conceived as means of preserving the existing Palace and collection. Various programs and functions will be relocated to the 70,000 sqft extension, restoring the historic atmosphere of the 15 th century Venetian style Palace that originally composed the museum. The extension include the design of a concert hall, an exhibition gallery, conservation laboratories and classrooms, artist in residence apartments, working greenhouses and an entrance pavilion.
The design originates from a response to the monolithic character of the Palace, by fracturing the overall volume of the new building and opening it to the site. Composed of four smaller volumes clad in oxidized copper panels, each accommodates a programmatic element of the museum. These volumes float above a transparent ground floor activated by classrooms, cafe and orientation areas. The openness between programs, the museum gardens and the larger site encourages interactions and reveals a sense of the museum-at-work. The main volume of the building house a 300-seat performance hall. Three levels of balconies surround the performance floor, creating a intimate atmosphere with sophisticated acoustics. A central glazed roof above the hall brings natural light into the space.
The second largest volume accommodates a 2000 sqft special contemporary exhibition gallery with a moveable, translucent ceiling that provides a high degree of flexibility to the space. Natural light floods in through the glazed façade and skylight with microlouvers, both equipped with sun screens to control the quality of light. The other two volumes are dedicated to support and conservation facilities, including a laboratory, teaching space, storage and offices. A circulation spine connotes the different volumes of the building, leading visitors to the upper levels through an open central stairway and elevator.
A glass corridor hidden among the trees links the new wing to the Palace through the garden.
The greenhouses are located at the museum`s new wing to the Palace through the garden.
The greenhouses are located at the museum's new entrance facing Evans Way Park, and facilitate the horticultural program. The sloping glazed roof of the 2-story structure opens the greenhouse on the ground level and artist apartments above, to the park. The greenhouse and artist accommodations are connected to the main circulation spine through the lobby creating a level of social and intellectual interaction within the Museum."
