This building will complement the historic building - the austere mansion of Gardner herself, the founder of the museum, built in 1902 and called the "palace" by the Bostonians. Building on this subtle comparison, museum director Anne Howley dubbed Piano's building an "extraordinarily elegant workshop" for the museum's most "resource-intensive" functions.
In the meantime, the old building will regain its original purpose: it is a space for direct contact with works of art from the Gardner collection, which includes works by Piero della Francesca, Botticelli, Vermeer and other old masters.
In the new wing, on an area of 6.5 thousand m2, there is a new lobby, a spacious transformable hall for temporary exhibitions (they plan to show three new exhibitions a year there), a concert hall for 300 seats, restoration workshops, apartments for "resident artists" and etc.
They are distributed over four rectangular volumes; extensive glazing areas alternate with brick walls and patinated copper cladding.
The new building claims a LEED Gold Resource Efficiency Certificate, with geothermal space heating and cooling, natural light, an economical green irrigation system and local building materials.
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