According to Cohn, HUAM and its architects have created schematics for three types of renovations—ranging from minor to more drastic—and they expect to present final plans including cost estimates to the provost’s office by the end of December.
The most significant renovations call for the consolidation of the Sackler, the Fogg and the Busch-Reisinger—whose collection is already housed in a new wing of the Fogg—in a single building, according to Cohn.
The Sackler, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of Eastern, Islamic and Asian art, resides in a building across the street.
The plan, according to Cohn, would move the Sackler’s collection into the space currently used as the Fogg’s Fine Arts Library. The library, then, would relocate to the Sackler’s current building.
She says this “unified” museum would have advantages despite its logistical complexities.
“I do feel strongly that if we could bring the Sackler in [to the Fogg complex] it would be wonderful for teaching,” she says. “Having an academic museum where all of our museums could cross-pollinate would be great.”
Other plans include simply charging the engineering of the building to fix structural and mechanical problems.
But Cohn says these renovations would be as expensive as the more drastic change and would cause “frustration at doing something for the Fogg that does not enlarge its resources.”
“I’d rather do it right once,” she says.
Cuno says he agrees that renovations should be wide-scale, particularly since there is no additional museum currently in the works.
“We need to do as much as we possibly can on this site,” he says.
But any renovations will have a high price tag. And Cohn says it will be more difficult to solicit donors without the enticement of their name on a new building.
“I want to find the people who want their names on freight elevators,” she jokes.
Moreover, she says, any renovations are bound to be difficult, as they will likely require removing a substantial portion of the collection that is not currently displayed to some temporary space—a process that risks damage to the artwork.
She says the museums may also need to find a temporary public exhibition space for the work on display.
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