Gardner Museum Expansion | Fenway

[found5dollar]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Is the green surface a protective membrane that they'll peel off when it's finished?

no. It's pre-weathered copper.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Yeah, I wonder if it would look better if it were natural copper aka brown and then slowly turn to green...

 

[Tombstoner]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

no. It's pre-weathered copper.

It's ceramic made to look like weathered copper.
The interior looks quite nice, but very scandinavian--rather jarring juxtaposed to the italianate original building. I have to assume that the disconnect is intentional. The tall volumes and tight spaces create some consistancy but the interiors match the exteriors in chalkiness vs. cheesiness.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Well, we know who to blame.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/the_lady_of_the_house/

Methinks this will turn out to be a paradigm for audacious failure.

 

[whighlander]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I got a new camera!

Is that the new main entrance -- looks like some building designed for the SPID

This is worse than when the MFA abandoned the magnificent Huntington Ave entrance for the hidden bunker entrance provided by Pei

Thankfully Malcom realized the mistake and got Bank of Boston -- aka Bank of America to fix up the Huntington Ave entrance

 

[Ron Newman]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I haven't seen this in person, but from the photos, this belongs at MIT, not in the Fenway.

 

[whighlander]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I haven't seen this in person, but from the photos, this belongs at MIT, not in the Fenway.

Ron I drove by it one afternoon but couldn't stop as there was some construction equipment in the street

I agree -- totally inappropriate for the context

If Piano had to do the Green Thing -- it should have been reversed with the glass ski challet

then you would have left to right:

Green Thing -- Glass Ski Challet (entrance lobby) -- glass coridor (for isolation) -- the Palace

The way it is curently configured -- I wouldn't fault Izzy if she wasn't trying to claw her way back to the surface to take the building down personally!

 

[whighlander]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Ron I drove by it one afternoon but couldn't stop as there was some construction equipment in the street

I agree -- totally inappropriate for the context

If Piano had to do the Green Thing -- it should have been reversed with the glass ski challet

then you would have left to right:

Green Thing -- Glass Ski Challet (entrance lobby) -- glass coridor (for isolation) -- the Palace

The way it is curently configured -- I wouldn't fault Izzy if she wasn't trying to claw her way back to the surface to take the building down personally!

Note -- above view is taken from an archboston posting that I think is the closest to what Campbell is discussing
http://www.buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org/vision/building-cultural-landmark-bostonBuilding a Cultural Landmark for Boston

This is what Campbell has to say on the Gardner's website

I like Campbell and frequently agree with his senitments -- but I think he sold out:

Robert Campbell, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning architecture critic, examines how Piano’s design for the Gardner works within the Fenway Cultural District.

Note -- he is descibing a rendering on the website -- Elevation from Evans Way Park. © RENZO PIANO BUILDING WORKSHOP, 2010. Note: The brick massing at left is an apartment building adjacent to the Museum and is not part of the project.

"....When an institution is housed in an older building that is itself a distinguished work of architecture, there’s a special burden on the owner to maintain that level of excellence.

The Gardner has stepped up to the plate on this issue by commissioning a building from Renzo Piano, acknowledged as one of the leading world architects of our time, a winner of the Pritzker Prize and the designer of such outstanding art museums as the De Menil in Houston and the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.

Piano’s design has been developed in collaboration with the Museum staff and trustees. It’s unobtrusive in scale, so as not to compete with the Palace. But it’s also ambitious. It seeks to be, itself, a work of art worthy of taking its place in the Gardner’s famous collection......

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

^^^ From that perspective, it resembles a Hollywood sound stage.

Below is the rendering that I believe Campbell was referencing.

The original design called for "patinated copper panels".

Only 2,000 more sq ft of gallery space. Most of the mass is for a 400 seat performance hall.

 

[statler]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Wait, Campbell wrote a critique based on a rendering? That is like reviewing a movie based on a trailer. You would think he would know better.

 

[whighlander]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

^^^ From that perspective, it resembles a Hollywood sound stage.

Below is the rendering that I believe Campbell was referencing.

The original design called for "patinated copper panels".

Only 2,000 more sq ft of gallery space. Most of the mass is for a 400 seat performance hall.

Stel -- i've nothing against a service building and performance space -- the services (tickets, shop, restaurant, offices, restrooms, coat room, conservation labs) needed expansion and the new Performance Hall clears the Tapestry Gallery to return to its original intent

My problem is why not put the Green Box for perforance and most services on the otherside of a slightly larger low profile glass entry structure then the separation between the new and the Palace would be much cleaner

By the way -- the pannels are apparently copper -- see the site about building the Gardner

http://www.buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org/updates/pouring-mat-slab

http://vimeo.com/8725299

and further -- am I the only one to think that the first pour of concrete reminds one (in an image of some holy one on a piece of toast fashion) -- of a piece of Mrs. Gardners underclothing?

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

A lot of candidates for the "Most deceitful rendering of the year" award... between this and MassArt.

 

[stellarfun]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

whighlander, tombstoner, who has been inside, says the panels are ceramic made to look like weathered copper.

In the rendering, there is reflective glass around part of the Green Box, which captures the palette of the original Italianate museum. Much less jarring.

This design element seems to have disappeared.

Once inside, the ground level color-less glass walls continue the transparent reading of the site, punctuated by a series of brick walls that extend into the garden establishing a visual relationship with the Palace.

 

[Bubbybu]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I nominate this for most disappointing new development of 2011. Thing looks like bio-chem headquarters/ greenhouse/ listerine bottle

 

[whighlander]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

whighlander, tombstoner, who has been inside, says the panels are ceramic made to look like weathered copper.

In the rendering, there is reflective glass around part of the Green Box, which captures the palette of the original Italianate museum. Much less jarring.

This design element seems to have disappeared.

Don't want to argue but:

the headline says " Installing the Copper Façade"

"Repeating panels of pre-patinated copper begin to be installed on the exterior façade of the new wing overlooking Tetlow Street."

The above is a caption to a picture on the following URL
http://www.buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org/updates/installing-copper-façade


then I found the following caption:

"Shipping Copper to the Site"

"Crated pre-patinated copper panels manufactured by GARTNER Steel and Glass and shipped from Gundelfingen, Germany, sit on the construction site waiting to be installed on the façade of the new building."

which when you look the panels in the crate -- they are patinated on one side and decidely copper colored on the other

asuming that we are talking about the same panels -- the matter would seem to be settled

http://buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org/updates/narrative

 

[Arborway]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Copper? I thought it was fabric this whole time.

(Then again, I haven't seen it in person)

 

[Tombstoner]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Don't want to argue but:

the headline says " Installing the Copper Façade"

"Repeating panels of pre-patinated copper begin to be installed on the exterior façade of the new wing overlooking Tetlow Street."

The above is a caption to a picture on the following URL
http://www.buildingproject.gardnermuseum.org/updates/installing-copper-façade


then I found the following caption:

"Shipping Copper to the Site"

"Crated pre-patinated copper panels manufactured by GARTNER Steel and Glass and shipped from Gundelfingen, Germany, sit on the construction site waiting to be installed on the façade of the new building."

That certainly looks like copper. There is, however, some faux patinated copper ceramic being used in other areas (at least in the area where I went up to it and "dinged" it)--it was not this crenolated material.

 

[davem]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

And this is a really good example of why I switched from B-Arch to Historic Preservation. Jesus what a turd.

 

[JS38]

ArchRecord.com on Gardner Museum expansion

They take a first look at the building approaching completion:

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2011/12/Gardner-Museum.asp

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Interesting... none of the pictures in that slide show actually show the old and new buildings side by side. This slight makes the new addition much more attractive than it is in real life.