Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Prestel Publishing, New York, 2012, English

Nonfiction, Architecture

8.3 x 8.3 inches, hardcover, 96 pages, 90 illustrations

ISBN: 9783791346939

Suggested Retail Price: $29.95

From the Publisher. This sleek monograph documents the design and construction of a new wing in one of the world’s finest museums.

Founded in 1870, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts is not just an impressive museum — it is also housed in one of America’s most distinguished buildings. When it was time to add an extension to accommodate the museum’s holdings, Foster + Partners conceived of a brilliant strategy, one that reinforced the logic of the original Beaux-Arts footprint while adding a few neo-modernist twists such as the insertion of a freestanding glazed structure between the building’s two principal spaces. This crystal spine encloses an existing courtyard in a glass jewel box, which creates spaces for visitor orientation and a café and leads to the new Art of the Americas wing. This book provides a detailed history of the 120,000-square-foot project, from the museum’s founding to the triumphant unveiling of the new wing.

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