Gardner Museum Expansion | Fenway

Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Tombstoner said:
I have to say, Piano does nothing for me. Can someone remind me why, again, he is a starchitect? :confused: Just as in Atlanta with the addition to the High Museum, it seems his strong suit these days seems to be boxy spaces with stadium-quality finishes.
Click to expand...

46TheShard_pic1.jpg
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

The addition is overshadowed by the brick side of the adjacent apartment building. It all looks so chaotic.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

The "shard" is certainly big and pointy; it will attract attention. It doesn't wow me, but it is distinctive.
At the High I saw some models of something Piano built in New Caledonia that looked really spectacular, but my point was that his museum projects in the US are really pedestrian and look super-budget (but obviously aren't). I wouldn't have been surprised to see the Garder addition labelled "Hampton Inn--Needham." The addition to the MFA is plain-but-classy and subtle. There is nothing classy or subtle about this.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

gardner_jan_2011_5.jpg


gardner_jan_2011_6.jpg


gardner_jan_2011_4.jpg


gardner_jan_2011_7.jpg


Palace Rd side:
gardner_jan_2011_3.jpg


gardner_jan_2011_2.jpg


gardner_jan_2011_1.jpg
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

My apologies to Hampton Inn and Needham. They got the raw end of my comparison.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

1954 called and wants its panels back.

Seriously, this is the worst aspect of neomodernism. Glass curtain walls? Sure, if you can afford to maintain them. But that panel look does not age well. Ask any city in Africa.

As for Piano? He and Foster are clearly both the favored Court Architects of the Cultural Establishment, but I feel like the big leagues who can afford it go with Foster. Both guarantee good engineering, but only Foster really pulls off design that manages to be original, subtle, and elegant at the same time.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Do you consider Foster's MFA addition superior (i.e. more original, subtle, and elegant) to Piano's AIC addition?
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

From what I can tell, the interior of Piano's AIC is sublime, but the exterior seems far from subtle and suffers from the same failure to have learned the lessons of the 50s. Foster's neomodernism doesn't forget that postmodernism happened - and happened for a reason.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

034-1.jpg
035-3.jpg
this afternoon
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Yesterday

5449669044_6b0755df13_b.jpg


5449669848_04f2ddd713_b.jpg


5449060769_15afa1925b_b.jpg


5449061589_14853eb095_b.jpg


5449062061_e955b00477_b.jpg


5449062539_996fe49411_b.jpg


5449671786_f46bce74df_b.jpg
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

what are those green panels? are they oxidized copper or just green... something?
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

^hmmm... if it is real copper then it probably looks better in person that these pictures show. The color is just kinda... off...
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

No, it doesn't look better in person...
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Why did the Gardner Museum build a suburban office building in the Fenway?
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I now see the site says that they're pre-patinated copper panels. I thought they were ceramic. The color seems a little too turquoise and lacks the random gradations that give patinated copper its nice texture. Maybe they just need to weathered.

But I agree with kz, it doesn't look any better in person.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Hmmm.... i am still going to hold off judgment on this building until it is finished, but because of the materials being used (red brick and copper, which, in my opinion, always look better with time), i think this building will not look great when it is finished, but will age really well.
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

Not a fan at the moment...hope that opinion will change. It does not fit into the area...
 
Re: Gardner Museum to undertake $60 million expansion

I want to love it, but I dislike the location and context, and really wish that Piano had chosen to preserve the old carriage house, as he did with architectural fragments in his California Academy of Sciences project in Golden Gate Park.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top