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.