Gardner Expansion, Update

Time for another update, this on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's expansion plans. When last we wrote, the Gardner had announced it had hired Italian architect Renzo Piano to design a building on the museum's site. The project, which officials said would cost at least $60 million, would move offices and the café out of the existing "Palace" and triple the Gardner's special exhibitions space.

To make room for Piano's building, the Gardner says it needs to knock down a pair of structures on the site. One is the carriage house, built by Mrs. Gardner in 1907. The second is a two-story annex, constructed in 1933, after her death.

[Below, are two views of the carriage house. A third diagram gives you a sense of where the Gardner plans to expand.]

Earlier this week, the Boston Landmarks Commission told the Gardner it could knock down the annex, but said museum officials needed to offer a better explanation before removing the carriage house.

As far as the annex, "it was built in 1933 after her death, it was an adminstrative support building," said Roysin Bennett Younkin, architectural historian for the Landmarks Commission. "[In regard to the carriage house, "their concern was the association with Mrs. Gardner."

James Labeck, the Garder's director of operations, said the museum intends to prove its case before April 9, when the Landmark Commission's 90-day delay expires. The museum has tried to incorporate the carriage house into Piano's plans, but it won't work, Labeck said.