Culture Chronicle

At the Morgan, Gently Restoring a Treasure-Filled Building
By Carol Vogel
The New York Times - May 11, 2010

When the Morgan Library & Museum reopened four years ago after undergoing a widely praised $106 million renovation and expansion, it seemed as if its problems had ended. Renzo Piano's design, with its gleaming steel-and-glass entrance on Madison Avenue, soaring atrium, new gallery spaces and 280-seat auditorium, provided much needed space. It also gracefully linked the Morgan's three disparate buildings and erased its awkward 1991 glass atrium.

But while the Piano design did much to update the institution's fusty image and enabled curators to present several temporary exhibitions at once, it still did not provide nearly enough room to show off the Morgan's permanent collection. And as beautiful as naturally lighted spaces are, they do not work for showing delicate works on paper, a problem for an institution with a wealth of drawings by Leonardo, Rubens, Degas and Schiele, among others.

Now William Griswold, the new director, is embarking on a $4.5 million project that will gently restore one portion of the old Morgan that was not touched by Mr. Piano: the building designed by Charles McKim in 1906 to house J. P. Morgan's personal office and library. While the landmark Renaissance-style facade on 36th Street was cleaned during the expansion, its grand marble and mosaic entrance rotunda and multitiered library have stayed more or less the same for decades. For the full article, click here