Mission Hill Concerned about Mrs. Jack's Will?

Critics fear expansion will alter museum's style
Increase in visitors necessitates $60m plan, Gardner staff says
Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Thomas C. Palmer Jr.
Globe Staff / April 2, 2008

The plan for a new Piano-designed complex that would be built behind the existing museum was approved unanimously by the Boston Redevelopment Authority's board yesterday. It would contain a performance hall, educational space, a new entrance lobby, museum shop, cafe and kitchen, greenhouse, and other space.

While the Boston Preservation Alliance and a number of groups based in the Fenway neighborhood endorse the expansion, another organization, Friends of Historic Mission Hill, is asking the Boston Landmarks Commission to head off some of the proposed changes, saying they would violate instructions Gardner included in her will to preserve the original museum, which was built in the 15th-century Venetian palazzo style.

"It's like one of the 10 special buildings in the whole city," said Alison Pultinas, who has led the Mission Hill effort. "The intention of the property was a walled palace, monastic on the outside and palatial on the inside. We're concerned about the scale of the project, the authenticity of the museum experience, and changes to how people experience the Palace."

The proposed $60 million project includes a 60,000-square-foot glass addition and renovation of the fourth floor of the Palace, as the original Gardner is called. The new build ing would be about 50 feet from the existing main structure and 62 feet high, about the same as the Palace, and would connect to the main building through the garden.

The project would "create a building that is special in its own right, while respecting the unique nature and historic integrity of the Palace," the museum said in documents filed with the city.

The expansion is needed to accommodate visitors, which have increased to 200,000 a year, and to relieve overcrowded conditions that museum director Anne Hawley described to the BRA board yesterday. "We have people working in basements and closets," she said. "It's a nightmare, frankly."

One of Boston's most beloved and quirkiest institutions, the Palace was built around 1901 as a residence and museum, and features a flowering courtyard at its center and a collection of 2,500 objects that includes the first Matisse painting acquired by a museum in the United States. Eighteen years ago last month, thieves broke into the museum and stole 13 works of art - including three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and a Manet - a crime that remains unsolved.

To make way for the new building, the Gardner would demolish a carriage house, annex, and part of a perimeter wall. The project would require relocating one work of art - a sarcophagus - as well as moving the main entrance from The Fenway to Evans Way.

Pultinas believes the changes, including demolition of the carriage house, may violate Gardner's will about preserving the property and the collection inside.

"Her will referred to the buildings, carriage house, and Palace," she said.

The Mission Hill group petitioned the Landmarks Commission in February to designate the Gardner complex as a landmark, which would significantly restrict what alterations could be made without commission approval. The Gardner agreed to participate in the commission's review of the project. A meeting is scheduled for next week where the commission will vote whether to give conceptual approval.

But Gardner's will also stipulates that the museum be maintained for public enjoyment, and officials believe the expansion is critical to fulfilling that obligation. The museum has submitted the project to the state attorney general for review, and will seek a ruling from probate court on whether the addition violates Gardner's will.

"We think, in the context of the overall purpose of Mrs. Gardner's will to create a museum for the education and enjoyment of the public forever, this is a very reasonable step to take," said Stephen W. Kidder, a lawyer for the museum.

The Fenway Alliance, a group of more than 20 institutions, said in a letter of support that the expansion "will be an ideal complement to Isabella Stewart Gardner's palace" and "will enable the museum to better preserve one of Boston's most treasured cultural resources."

Another supporter, the Boston Preservation Alliance, wrote that while the carriage house is "an interesting building," it "has never been part of the visitor experience."

Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com.