Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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.