These are exciting times at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. Construction is booming, galleries are changing and works of art are on the move as part of a $500 million campaign, "Building the new MFA," which is scheduled to be completed by late 2010.
When the renovation — conceived by the esteemed London-based architecture firm Foster & Partners — is complete, there will be a large new wing for American art, a spectacular glass courtyard connecting the existing building to the new wing, and a refurbished corridor along the center of the museum, anchored by the two historic entrances on Huntington Ave. and Fenway.
The campaign will also include the addition of learning facilities, the already-completed relocation of the Jean S. and Fredric A. Sharf Visitor Center, the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery for special exhibitions, new areas for conservation, refurbishment of the European and Ancient World galleries and a large new area for contemporary and modern art.
Kelly Gifford, public relations manager at the MFA, told the Daily, "What we're really doing with Foster & Partners is creating more space for artwork, so the main mission of the museum is to bring people and art together and the main mission of this expansion is to create more space and more galleries for the displays of the museum's collection." This new space adds 52 new galleries in the American Wing alone and frees up space for Art of Europe to take over the Evans Wing and contemporary art to fill the West Wing. "It's kind of like a ripple effect," Gifford said, "with the main goal being to get more of the collection out and to make it easier for visitors to find it."
"Open, accessible and transparent"
According to Gifford, the MFA and Foster & Partners' collective aim is to make the museum more "open, accessible and transparent" to the community of Boston and the world. The construction of Foster & Partners' structure, already well underway, will be a stunning addition to the MFA and is certain to achieve that goal. It will blend well with the surrounding community and propel the MFA's structure into the likes of the most famed museums of the world.
The glass structure designed for the American Wing will be physically transparent, fitting into MFA director Malcolm Rogers' larger scheme for accessibility. Since Rogers' arrival at the MFA, he re-opened the Huntington Entrance (since closed for renovations), extended museum hours to be open seven days a week (some of the longest opening hours of any art institution in the country), and instated free admission for children aged 17 and under. The extensive online database is another attempt to open the museum to a wider community, now with 350,000 of the 450,000 works in the collection accessible online.
Making history: from Copley to Fenway
The MFA's "Building Project Fact Sheet" outlines the history of the MFA, starting from its 1876 opening as a brick and terra-cotta site in Copley Square, a space the expanding collection outgrew. In 1909, the MFA officially relocated to a grand, "Beaux-Arts structure on Huntington Avenue" designed by architect Guy Lowell. Over the years, additions were made to the granite building including the Evans Wing, also designed by Lowell, in 1915.
In 1981, famed architect I.M. Pei completed the West Wing, which became, and remains, the museum's main entrance. During the construction of this wing, the doors to the grand Fenway entrance were closed and never reopened. Several years later, the Huntington Ave. entrance was also closed to the public.
I.M. Pei's structure served as a fine base for museum visitors with its light-filled entry area, large gallery spaces and spacious retail shops and dining venues. However, as the other entrances to the museum were permanently closed, according to Gifford, many visitors entered through the West Wing, saw only part of the collection, visited the gift shop and left without ever getting to the heart of the museum's collection, laid out along the central axis stretching between the Huntington and Fenway entrances.
Continuously striving "to bring people into direct encounters with works of art," as Gifford put it, and recognizing that its setup was insufficient, the MFA decided to expand. In May 1999, the museum commissioned the celebrated architecture firm Foster & Partners to create a master site plan for the renovation. Foster & Partners unveiled its schematic designs in February 2002 and construction began soon after.
A celebrated firm for a celebrated museum
Foster & Partners is an international firm "with project offices in more than 20 countries," according to its Web site. Its works, characterized by sensitivity to location and dramatic use of natural light, include "the largest single structure on the planet," the Beijing Airport, and the recently completed Hearst Headquarters in New York City, which incorporates a six-story art deco building (original to the site) with a tall office tower in a spectacular light-filled atrium.
Gifford explained that after the museum's international search, Foster & Partners was the best fit. "They have an incredible record of creating new expansions to very old buildings that complement and enhance the way that the building looks and the way that visitors access them," Gifford said. As the Hearst Headquarters and its Web site suggest, Foster & Partners is "guided by a sensitivity to the culture and climate of place," and the firm seeks to tastefully integrate its structures with the surrounding area. Therefore, when it set out to design the new MFA, Foster & Partners returned to Guy Lowell's original master plan, which called for the museum to have a central plan, with a central corridor anchored by the entrances on Huntington and Fenway. This original plan was the basis on which the firm expanded.
Building the new MFA
Foster & Partners' plan includes the reopening of the Huntington and Fenway entrances and the relocation of the Jean S. and Fredric A. Sharf Visitor Center to the center of the building. This project will restore the original layout of the museum, and will guide the flow of visitors directly into the heart of the museum's collection (Art of Europe, Art of the Ancient World, etc.).
In the visitor center, now open, the wall opposite the information desk will be removed and visitors will walk into a glass courtyard, The Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard, on the other side of which will be the new American Wing. Two large walls of glass stretching from the existing structure to the new wing will make this space usable all year round and it will be decorated with statuary and surrounded by beautiful landscaping, allowing for a smooth transition between the two buildings.
A new wing celebrates American art
Once visitors pass through the glass courtyard, they will enter the four-story American Wing. Arranged chronologically and mixing painting and sculpture, the new galleries will give the visitor an understanding of each respective period in both forms of art.
According to the MFA's Web site, the first floor will display "prehistoric Native American and pre-Columbian collections," the second floor will hold works from the Colonial Period, the third floor will show work from the 19th century, and the fourth floor — a large space with high ceilings — will display works from the 20th century.
The wing, which will face Forsyth Way, will consist of three parts: a central structure of mostly glass walls and two pavilions on either side with facades of glass and granite panels. The design is bold, but at the same time subtly elegant. And, to link the new American Wing with the original structure, granite for the new addition will be from the same area in the same quarry in Maine from which the granite for the original Beaux Arts structures was taken at the beginning of the 20th century.
With its glass walls, the central part of the new American Wing will blend the museum with the surrounding community (one of the goals of the campaign). The structure will be aesthetically pleasing and an embodiment of the transparency principle, allowing pedestrians on street level to see into the museum and visitors inside the museum to look out toward downtown Boston.
A great reorganization
While the Harvard Art Museum, also undergoing renovations, closed its doors to the public for construction, the MFA made the decision to stay open during renovation. "When we commissioned to do the master site plan our director made a firm commitment that the museum would be open during the renovations," said Gifford. "So from the outset we knew we wanted to keep the museum open."
One phase of the building campaign already complete is the reopening of the entrance on Fenway. Renamed the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance in honor of the company's $10 million gift — the largest in the MFA's history — the area features handicapped ramps, a wider porch and staircase, two reflecting pools and large sculptures by Antonio López García, acquired by the MFA during his exhibition this past spring. These changes make the entryway more accessible and highlight its dramatic classical design and prime location on Fredrick Law Olmsted's famed Emerald Necklace Park.
Additionally, the current parking lot and loading facility facing Huntington Ave. will be relocated to make the approach to the MFA less cluttered and allow visitors to better appreciate the beauty of the classical and contemporary structures intertwined.
A building for the ages
When the construction is complete, the additions will be visually spectacular, but will hold a value that far exceeds their aesthetics. They will, as the MFA desired, connect the museum with the surrounding community.
Following a motto of "art is for everyone," announced by Malcolm Rogers in a video about the renovations, the MFA seeks to be a place where all people, regardless of their knowledge of art, can feel comfortable.
Foster & Partners' brilliant plans for addition and reorganization will realize that goal and reflect the MFA's commitment to cultural programming, already a great resource in the Boston art community for film screenings, lectures and events designed for college students. The new buildings will not be sensationalist or out of place; rather, they will be welcoming and appropriately fit in with the existing structures.
The MFA is not changing its identity, but is making an effort to integrate with the times. As Gifford put it, "We have one of the best encyclopedic collections in the world, so we don't want to change that, we just want to make it easier for people to come in and walk around the museum and also see more artwork … We opened our doors in 1876 so there's always room for innovation." Indeed, these long-awaited changes will be a welcome change to an already-celebrated museum.
