Renzo Piano’s Modern Wing of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the first major addition to the site since it opened in 1903, will open to the public on January 19. The contested and highly anticipated addition—due to explicit wishes in Gardner's will that her museum remain exactly in her vision that prompted the project's approval by a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in March of 2009—has been designed to complement the original 15th century Venetian style building in scale, form, and materials, and provides a much needed update to the site’s traffic demands.

Set back 50 feet behind the original historic mansion, the new wing more than doubles the museum’s 60,000 square feet with its four stories. Its glass atrium ticketing area offers continuous views of the site’s garden landscape, where concerts and other events will take place. Above the transparent first floor, four patinated copper–clad volumes seemingly float. The new wing houses a gift shop, café, coat check, 300-seat music hall, offices, apartments for artists-in-residence, and a visitor’s living room.

The Modern Wing is aiming to attain LEED Gold certification.

For more information, visit www.gardnermuseum.org.