School of the Museum of Fine Arts

School of the Museum of Fine Arts

School of the Museum of Fine Arts Keith Morgan

School of the Museum of Fine Arts

1927, Guy Lowell; 1986–1987, Graham Gund Architects. 230 The Fenway.

Reinforcing the position of the Museum of Fine Arts (FL12) as Boston's art center, the museum school was renovated and expanded in the 1980s. Respecting the mannered red brick with cast stone and the copper-and-glass mansard-roofed facade of Guy Lowell's original building (1927), Graham Gund transformed the new core into a light open space; its staircase, balcony, and high attic retain the modernity of the twenties updated by contemporary industrial fixtures, the Grossman Gallery provides substantial new exhibition space. The recessed entrance on The Fenway features a bronze rhinoceros by Katherine Lane Weems, designed in 1935 and cast in 1987. On Museum Road behind the school and facing the west entrance of the museum, Di Giorgio Associates designed a parking garage (1988) that repeats the material and massing of the museum school while providing much needed parking for both institutions.

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