Gardner Undergoes Both Preservation, Expansion

“The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is in the middle of an ambitious $180 million upgrade. But because its namesake left explicit instructions that nothing be altered after her death, the changes underway have raised some questions….

The transition is really two projects – the restoration of the Gardner’s historic Venetian palace, and the construction of a new, strikingly different addition just 50 feet away. But a certain yin and yang is at play here between the old and the contemporary, according to project director James Labeck.”

Read how the Gardner’s conservators are straddling the line in this article on the WBUR.org