THE MYSTIQUE of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is the way it tries to stop time, keeping the galleries of its Venetian-style "palace" largely as they were during Mrs. Gardner's lifetime.
But stopping time is hard. And museum officials say that to keep the museum as it was, they must change the grounds, adding a 60,000-square-foot building and tearing down an old carriage house.
The calls for demolition and construction seem to threaten Mrs. Gardner's intent. Her will says the museum should be for "the education and enjoyment of the public forever." For visitors to this Boston jewel, it can feel as if Gardner is still there, perhaps just upstairs in a private room. It's an intimate feeling that a new building may not have.
Still, most of the Gardner's plans make sense - with the notable exception of a proposal to move one of the palace walls.
The new building would reduce wear and tear by letting officials move high-impact activities out of the palace and into more suitable space. This new building would likely be home to the main entrance, the cafe, the shop, two classrooms, offices, and a performance hall. Freed of these burdens, the palace interiors - such as the tapestry room that now doubles as a meeting and performance space - could return to their former uses.
Set to be designed by award-winning architect Renzo Piano, the new building is to be distinctive in its own right. It's envisioned as a glass-walled space that guides eyes and minds toward the palace. This fits the terms of Mrs. Gardner's will, which says that trustees can use the Gardner's vacant land as they "deem necessary or expedient for the protection and benefit of the Museum."
Sacrificing the carriage house stings. But it has never been a part of the museum experience, and keeping it would compromise the more important work of preservation.
The museum should, however, exercise caution in connecting the new building and the palace. The current proposal is to create a glass tunnel. But this requires moving a wall and an adjacent sarcophagus that are inside the palace - a move that would seem to demolish rather than preserve the past.
Anne Hawley, the Gardner's director, says moving the wall is essential to preserving the " 'aha!' experience" that visitors have when they first walk into the palace's lushly planted interior courtyard. And the Gardner has submitted the plan to Attorney General Martha Coakley, so that she can decide whether the change would violate Gardner's will. But even if Coakley grants permission, alternatives to moving the wall should be explored further.
The Gardner museum frames time, guarding Mrs. Gardner's bold promise of "forever." Change - from computers to new facilities - must inevitably be part of this work. But the change should be as gentle as possible.
