MFA Expansion

[JimboJones]

Ron, great question. I'll take it right to the top and get back to you with an answer, asap.

 

[whighlander]

Ron -- Temporarily Yes -- but only for a a couple of years

As the Fosterization continues -- there will be a new Restaurant in the Art of the America's Wing and then the West Wing will be reconfigured into the Real Boston Contemporary Arts Museum ? not that crummy little pretender down in Southy

But to get there there has to be a check list coupled to the donation list

1) First open the Fenway Entrance (aka State Street Global Fenway Entrance) and some near-by gallery space in the Evans Wing (check)
2) simultaneously open the New Sharf Vistior Center (check)
3) then re-open the redone Huntington Ave (aka L?Avenue des Artes) Entrance (next Spring?)
4) then the Glass Box (the former Frazier Court)
5) then the Art of the America's -- this is the Big One
5a) and new Gund Gallery under the Glass Box -- possibly the New Gund will open with the Glass Box (aka the Shapiro Family something or other)
6) then the redone Evans Wing ? reconfigured into a 3 level Art of Monet, Millet, Renoir and the Rest of Europe Museum
7) then the redone West Wing reworked into the MFA Contempo

that's about 5 more years worth of constructing and reconstructing -- then we'll see what happens to the Museum Road Parking Lots and phase IIB?

Westy

PS: they have announced $456M in pledges and gifts (as of May 31) toward the $500M goal


Westy

 

[PaulC]

I attended a presentation, about 4 months ago, and they said there will not be an additional restaurant in the new wing nor a separate entrance. There will be an additional, smaller auditorium. At one point they thought about having an separate entrance for their film program.

 

[statler]

Boston Globe - June 27, 2008

MFA hits its $500m target
Breaks record for arts in Boston; Funds will build spaces, programs

By Geoff Edgers, Globe Staff | June 27, 2008

The Museum of Fine Arts has reached its $500 million fund-raising goal, the largest sum for a campaign by an arts institution in Boston history.

At a board meeting announcing the milestone yesterday, the MFA disclosed key contributions it had received from major local figures in business and the arts. The West Wing will be named for Joyce and Edward Linde and their family in recognition of the more than $25 million they have given the museum for the campaign. Barbara and Ted Alfond, who have given more than $10 million, will have their names on the 150-seat auditorium in the MFA's new Art of the Americas Wing, which is set to open in 2010.

The museum's 90 trustees gave $260 million of the total, with 52 giving $1 million or more, according to MFA deputy director Patricia Jacoby, who led the campaign.

The MFA's fund-raising drive, which began in 2001, eclipses campaigns by the Peabody Essex Museum ($194 million), Boston Symphony Orchestra ($150 million), and Institute of Contemporary Art ($75 million) in recent years.

"This is a very important moment in the museum's history, and naturally I feel pleased and very excited," MFA director Malcolm Rogers said by phone yesterday.

Other Boston arts leaders have been watching, particularly the BSO, which is on the cusp of launching a $250 million to $400 million campaign, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which is looking to raise more than $100 million for a building project on its site just a short walk away from the MFA.

"It just is very heartening that a goal that seemed tremendous to all of us when the MFA began was reachable," Helena H. Hartnett, the Gardner's development director, said yesterday. "My feeling is we can all stand on the shoulders of the MFA, and they become the touchstone for what's possible for the arts in Boston."

The bulk of the money from the MFA's campaign will go to the museum's ongoing $345 million expansion project, with other funds devoted to its endowment and programs.

Designed by the London-based architecture firm Foster + Partners, the expansion will add galleries, a glass-enclosed courtyard, conservation facilities, and a host of amenities to the museum. Last week, the MFA unveiled its revamped entrance on the Back Bay Fens, the first part of the expansion project to open to the public.

The MFA, one of the largest art museums in the country, originally opened in 1876 in the Back Bay. It moved to its current building on Huntington Avenue in 1909, with major expansions in 1915 and 1981. After struggling to balance the MFA's budget in the early 1990s, museum leaders in 1994 hired Rogers, who reorganized the MFA's curatorial staff and stabilized its finances. The museum draws about a million visitors a year.

Two years ago, the MFA named its Art of the Ancient World Wing after Lowell-born pharmaceuticals magnate George D. Behrakis and his wife, Margo, for giving more than $25 million to the campaign. With the Linde naming and the existing Evans Wing, naming opportunities are still available for the new 50,000-square-foot Art of the Americas Wing and the existing Asian Wing at the southwest corner of the museum.

"We will keep going," said Rogers. "Nonprofits never move entirely out of the fund-raising mode. We haven't set a new goal, but the work of raising resources for the museum is a constant one."

Other local arts leaders had words of praise for the MFA. "I think it's all positive," said Mark Volpe, the BSO's managing director. "When you're talking about these types of lead gifts, people are stretching, sure, but I don't think they're giving their last dollar to any institution."

Paul Bessire, deputy director of the ICA, agreed. "It's good to see what people call megagifts happening in Boston in the cultural arena," he said. "It changes the philanthropic landscape of Boston and gives opportunities to other organizations to talk about the impact these kinds of megagifts can have on an organization."

Bessire said the MFA's Art of the Americas Wing will present an exciting naming opportunity. "If the West Wing was $25 million, it could be in the 50 range," he said. "It could be more, also."

The Linde Family Wing, as it will be known, opened in 1981. Designed by I.M. Pei, it will be used to house contemporary art and will serve as the entrance for school and community groups when the expansion is completed and most museum visitors will be channeled through the Huntington Avenue and Fenway entrances.

Joyce Linde has been an MFA trustee since 2001. Edward Linde is chief executive officer of Boston Properties, which he founded in 1970 with chairman Mortimer Zuckerman. The firm is one of the largest owners, managers, and developers of office space in the country, with 48 properties in Boston alone. Linde, with a total annual compensation of $34.5 million, according to a 2008 Forbes survey, is also chairman of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's board of trustees.

The Alfond Auditorium will be used for films, concerts, and lectures. Barbara Alfond is president-elect of the MFA's board of trustees and served as cochair of the campaign. Ted Alfond is the son of the founder of Dexter Shoe Co. He and his wife have been listed in recent years on the ARTnews list of top collectors in the country.

In addition to the Linde, Alfond, and Behrakis contributions, the MFA received gifts of $10 million or more for the campaign from clothing company founder Carl Shapiro and his wife, Ruth, whose charitable foundation dates to 1961; the estate of longtime MFA supporter Roberta G. Logie, whose gift went to funding the Department of Textile and Fashion Arts in perpetuity; and State Street Corp., for which the museum's Fenway entrance is now named, among others.

Three gifts of $10 million or more were made anonymously.

The MFA completed the seven-year campaign with a late surge of donations, including a $10 million anonymous gift last week. Twenty-five members of the museum's board of trustees came through with $15 million over the last two months to enable the MFA to receive a $5 million matching grant from the Calderwood Charitable Foundation.

MFA staffers also gave $2.1 million, Jacoby said, with Rogers listed as a major benefactor, a category reserved for people who give between $500,000 and $1 million.

The museum received gifts of $1 million or more from Bank of America, Citizens Bank, Liberty Mutual, Merrill Lynch, and United Technologies Corp.

In all, the MFA received 25,000 contributions for the campaign, including 6,700 from first-time donors.

"It wasn't like four or five people got together in a room," said Stokely Towles, chairman of the board of trustees and cochair of the campaign. "It was something broadly supported."

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com

 

[JimboJones]

This is an amazing accomplishment!

Not to be lost in all the drama over the new wing is that several Bostonians have been overwhelming in their support, financially.

$25 million is still a lot of money!

I also like that several prominent donors choose to remain "anonymous".

Puritan Boston still exists.

 

[chumbolly]

^Rumor has it one particular anonymous donor kicked in $100m.

 

[Lurker]

Not everyone likes it to be known that they'll give several million to charity. It keeps them off the radar of cons, leeches, and hoards of money seeking organizations.

 

[whighlander]

I heard an interview and someone (to remain anonymous) said that in Boston Anonymous Donor (at the mega-level) is a synonym for Ned Johnson of Fidelity0fame

Apparently "AD" or perhaps "NJ" made several donations including $ 10M last week to crack the $500M barrier

Westy

PS: Apparently the only restaurant now planned for the New part of the MFA (still available for naming after those who have $50M to spare) will be an indoor sidewalk cafe in the "Shapiro Family Glass Box" although the existing Restaurant space in the West Wing (now the The Linde Family Wing) will be renovated as the Gund Galery moves to the space under the Glass Box

 

[JimboJones]

Well, whilghlander, you seem to have access to some pretty high-level information. But, more importantly, the freedom share it!

 

[kz1000ps]

First, the mock-up:

Now, the addition:

painted steel

I wanted to go around and shoot the new entrance, but the sun was too damned hot and at that point I had done 5 1/2 miles of walking with no break (did I mention I can be excessive/obsessive?). After this I made a beeline up Huntington for the fountain at the Christian Science Center. That was nice.

 

[chumbolly]

I like how, in the granite mock-up, they've used full granite blocks on the corner to hide the fact that they're otherwise using granite cladding.

 

[whighlander]

Nice pix of progress in Fosterization of the MFA

I was at the MFA today for the ?El Greco to Velasquez? exhibition ? I would rate it as fairly good (not great). I also did some inspecting of the various construction sites (West Wing Parking area, Huntington Ave entrance, Art of the America's Wing + Glass Box) and we did some inspecting of the newly re-opened State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance (SSCFE)-- unfortunately no camera today.

While we were there we checked out the very large, high-tech and somewhat intimidating Sharf Visitor Center (the full space under the Koch Gallery). We didn?t spend much time there -- so this assessment is very very preliminary

After checking out a couple of special exhibits linked to the re-opening of the SSCFE: upstairs in the hemicycle (European Portraits); and downstairs a gallery devoted to (Winslow Homer) -- we checked out the downstairs hemicycle exhibition about the original Copley Square MFA; the construction of the original Fenway , the grand move in 1909 and the history of various additions including the current Fosterization process with some hints about future of the Forsyth Building

Afterwards, we walked out through the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance to view the entrance and the whole Evans Wing facade from the Fenway street edge. After doing some additional walking around we then re-entered the MFA through the SSCFE took a look at the entrance from the inside and then re-exited through the SSCFE, turned right and walked past the Art of the America's Wing construction site.

The SSCFE and the massive colonnaded Evans Wing facade with its original steps have been well cleaned and the whole is now are quite dramatic from the street (the Fenway) I was concerned about how the Americans with Disabilities Act would effect the steps and the Evans Wing?s classical facade ? However, fear not -- with adequate money the ramps were well and nearly unobtrusively integrated into the sides of the grand steps. As an added touch the two giant baby heads make nice counterpoints to the two new fountains. Another nice feature is the formal walkway parallel to the Evans Wing facade (north side) with its "old fashioned" street lights that seem very appropriate (at least during the daytime.

However now the critic in me arises from his slumber:
1) The fountains are too small in height for the size of the basins (extremely shallow basins as well)
2) So-far there has been no obvious attempt to integrate the Japanese Garden into the path passing by it on the North side (Fenway) and currently due to the construction in the West Wing parking area -- the only access to the Japanese Garden is from the West Wing entrance or a great deal of circumnavigation of the west-side construction area
3)The biggest flaw in what I've seen so far is in the inside of the SSCFE -- as you enter the massive bronze doorway, you face the existing arched entrance hall with the grand interior staircase directly beyond-- but you are first faced with a modern access control ticket and collection desk (nothing wrong with that per se) -- BUT -- you now must pass though two undersized side portal alcoves making a right angle turn to enter into the hall on either side of the grand staircase and archway (now blocked by a glass transparent panel) -- I think the SSCFE would have been better served by a split access control desk backing against the two side alcoves with the formal entry straight ahead through the grand arch -- of course nothing is permanent -- so that access control point / ticket desk and glass wall may yet be altered once again before the West Wing doors close for good (at least for the access for the general public)

All in all -- for the first look at the first completed phase of the Fosterization of the MFA -- I would award an overall qualified OK ? check it out for your selves

Westy

 

[kz1000ps]

The Fenway side:

Look at the guy on the left

 

[itchy]

Awesome.

I keep meaning to get over to the MFA but have been too busy every weekend. The last time I was there, this winter, I was as blown away as I have been every time in my life I've visited the MFA. This is one of Boston's greatest assets.

Here's hoping the financing eventually comes through to revive Phase II of the current expansion (and both restore the building's symmetry and eliminate Pei's big concrete coffin).

 

[ablarc]

I was concerned about how the Americans with Disabilities Act would effect the steps and the Evans Wing?s classical facade ? However, fear not -- with adequate money the ramps were well and nearly unobtrusively integrated into the sides of the grand steps.

Oh, I dunno, they seem pretty obtrusive to me ... The ramp's parapet cuts off the columns' bases visually, while it bobs its way down following the alternating ramps and landings as it goes and expressing them as a weak and inexplicable undulation at the top. This is not so much design as it is the application of numerical formulas ... but *sigh* ... that's about the best we can expect going forward.

Did Foster "design" this or did someone else?

Actually, I know the answer: it was the code reviewer giving his interpretation of ADA's latest iteration.

Even Foster can't overcome that.

 

[Beton Brut]

^ Would it have been better if they mirrored the detailing on the plinth on the parapets? And set the granite in in smaller pieces, using a running bond?

 

[chumbolly]

Or used a a balustrade instead of a blank wall?

 

[Beton Brut]

^ Indeed.

I have no issues with the forthrightly modern aesthetic of Foster's addition, but this modification obscures the Classical features of the facade, as ablarc astutely noted, and does so in a ham-fisted way.

 

[Lurker]

The rear parking lot has been torn up including the lamp-posts and security booths. Perhaps this is more than an elaborating repaving?

 

[kz1000ps]

Pic from Friday: