Renzo Piano Makeover Planned for Harvard's Decrepit Museums

Harvard is, by far, this country's best-endowed university, and its art museums are among the most distinguished at any institution of higher learning. So imagine my surprise when I opened my father's copy of the March/April issue of Harvard Magazine, the publication sent to alumni, and read about the substandard physical state of the Harvard University Art Museums:

Some facility is needed urgently in which to put a quarter of a million art objects, and the staff who look after them, so that the aged building on Quincy Street in Cambridge that houses the Fogg and Busch-Reisinger museums can be vacated, rebuilt, and made ready for a genuinely revolutionary new educational role. The building at present is in such decline that it cannot be accredited as a professional art museum.

Daron Manoogian, PR Manager for the Harvard University Art Museums, provided me with more details about these sorry conditions:

The largest portion of our building on Quincy Street has never had a major renovation since it opened in 1927. It does not have a climate control system (with the exception of storage spaces) and many of the mechanical systems in the building (heating/cooling, plumbing, electrical) are in desperate need of updating. It's been known for some time that a renovation is necessary, but it's been tough to plan because it involves completely emptying the building. Also, complicating matters, our renovations directly affect the History of Art and Architecture faculty and the Fine Arts Library that both share our facilities. You can imagine why this has taken so long to come to fruition.

What I can't imagine is how such a rich university can set such a poor role model for future stewards of museum collections. There was a previous false start on this urgently needed renewal, described here.

The Quincy Street building will be vacated in June 2008 and rebuilt by architect Renzo Piano. Highlights of the collections will be displayed at the university's Sackler Museum across the street, with the rest moving temporarily to a new facility, designed by Kevin Daly, at the university's Allston campus (about a mile from Harvard Square). Construction on that is scheduled to begin this fall, with completion in 2009. The new facility will be devoted to modern and contemporary art, once the Quincy Street building reopens, possibly by 2013.