Landmarks Commission To Gardner: No
It is really nothing more than a mere technicality, but the Boston Landmarks Commission refused to lift its demolition delay on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum's carriage house in a meeting that ended around 7 p.m.
The delay was first voted on at a January meeting.
Mrs. Gardner built the house in 1907, four years after opening the museum. The Garder says it needs to be knocked down to make way for the approximately 55,000 square-foot building being designed by Renzo Piano's workshop.
At the hearing, commission member Jeffry Pond made the most passionate argument for keeping the house, and said the Gardner should do more to try to incorporate it into any new project.
The reality is, the Landmarks Commission can only slap a delay on the demolition. And that delay runs out in April. The Gardner doesn't plan to knock the carriage house down for at least another year. But Gardner director Anne Hawley said she was trying to explain the museum's reasoning because she wants the Landmarks Commission's support for the project. More on this in Thursday's newspaper.
Here's an interesting photo, from 1908, showing the carriage house's trellis, which no longer exists.
