| Evans Way Park, 2010 © RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP |
| Last week, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum unveiled the final Renzo Piano design for its 70k SF extension (construction managed by Shawmut Design and Construction). Transforming from one building to three, the modern structures will include a new entrance on Evans Way, a performance hall, two artist-in-residence apartments, a greenhouse, classrooms, caf, conservation labs, and offices. Last summer, excavation work started for the $180M makeover that will add the extension, bolster the endowment, and restore the 60k SF Venetian Palace that Mrs. Gardner built in 1903 to house her art collection. Today, the painting, sculpture, and artifacts are still shown the way she did, amid lush flowers often with classical music playing. |
| When doing such a costly makeover, it's a good idea to raise funds during a boom, when donors are flush, and build during a bust when construction costs fall. That's exactly how the project has played out. Although not on the development team, yesterday even Boston Police officer Lysander Wright, who was on traffic duty at the construction site, was pumped about the project. |
| Happier still, the Gardner?s operations director Jim Labeck and project director Lieza Dagher, as they survey the work scheduled for completion in 2012. Jim says the museum ?got lucky,? raising $100M from private sources from ?04 through ?08, hiring the construction manager last spring, and buying materials now for about 30% less than they would have cost a few years ago. But he also is well aware lots of challenges remain anytime you touch a historic building, especially a museum. ?We always have the vibration sensors on.? |
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