Harvard selects a new site for artwork

The Harvard University Art Museums has decided where in Allston it will build its temporary home when it closes the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums for renovation in 2008. After the renovation is complete, HUAM will remain at the new site, 224 Western Ave., to display contemporary art, a spokesman said yesterday.

In February, HUAM announced plans to renovate and move into a former Citizens Bank building at 1380 Soldiers Field Road. But a subsequent feasibility study showed that the project there would be too complicated, and Harvard began considering the new site.

"Our program requires a lot of climate-controlled areas, a lot of secured areas, and that building wasn't lending itself to that kind of renovation," said Harvard spokesman Daron Manoogian yesterday.

"This site will be a new building, and it'll also be a permanent facility. So when we move our operations from Cambridge to this location, we'll stay there."

Harvard will knock down a one-story structure at the Western Avenue location. The Los Angeles-based Daly , Genik Architects is designing a new building for the site.

Manoogian did not say how much the project will cost or when work will begin.

HUAM director Thomas Lentz planned to announce the selection of the new site at a meeting last night of an Allston-Brighton task force appointed by Mayor Thomas M. Menino to work with Harvard as it moves forward on its plans for Allston.

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. For more arts news, go to boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist.