Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Abstract

Isabella Gardner opened a museum in the form of a Venetian palazzo to the Boston public on New Year’s Day, 1903. Situated in the then-wilderness of the Back Bay Fens, a part of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s “Emerald Necklace” encompassing the city, the museum opened first with a concert before the galleries containing thousands of artworks laid out by Mrs. Gardner herself could be visited. One hundred years later, the museum handles two hundred thousand annual visitors, substantially more than the four thousand visitors received in each of the first years. This increase has placed a strain on the historic building, which the Board of Trustees decided to mitigate by embarking on an ambitious plan to add 6,500 m² (70,000 ft²) of space to house the functions required of a museum operating in the twenty-first century. In comparison, the historic Palace encompasses 5,300 m² (57,000 ft²). The board of the museum selected Renzo Piano as the architect in late 2004, based on the strength of his work at the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Menil Collection, and the Beyeler Foundation.