Philly art lovers to see much-needed expansion

The answer: build down.

The museum plans to dig into the hill it sits atop, creating galleries beneath its front terrace at the same level as the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The museum's stone base will serve as a palate for architect Frank O. Gehry, celebrated for a bold and idiosyncratic style that gave rise to structures such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

The underground workspace will constrain some of Gehry's signature architectural showmanship but complement another talent, said the museum's chief operating officer, Gail Harrity.

"He can touch a space lightly and almost invisibly and make it perfect for art," she said.

The steps made famous in the "Rocky" movies won't be touched in an effort to "expand in a respectful fashion that honors the landmark," Harrity said.

At 80,000 square feet (7,432 square meters), the plowed-out addition will mean a 60 percent increase in the museum's public space, adding galleries with ceilings that climb to heights ideal for large contemporary art works by the likes of Cy Twombly, Morris Louis and Joseph Beuys.

Subterranean special exhibitions galleries will hold more visitors and allow the American and Asian art collections to spread out over a greater swath of the main floor.

Before any of that work can start, the existing building needs a few touch ups.

The roof leaks, though not enough to have damaged any artwork, and scaffolding now crawling up the facade at the eastern entrance is the first stage of a project to restore and repair the building's exterior, section by section.

The two-year project, lasting until 2009, will replace leaky gutters, use lasers to clean colorful terra-cotta column tops and decorations, restore Tiffany-designed grillwork for the windows and replace stonework with materials from the same quarries that begot the museum's original yellow limestone exterior.

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To give visitors an easier time getting to the new and improving museum, a 440-car parking garage is also under construction, with completion envisioned in the spring of 2009.

Outside the western entrance, the only evidence of the underground lot will be a glass pavilion with an elevator that brings people up from their cars to the landscaped hill and sculpture garden.

Though not every gallery will be open every day, the museum will remain open throughout the expansion, d'Harnoncourt said.

"It has always looked like and felt like a whole panorama of art on each floor," she said. "We will now be able to do that on a whole new level."

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