[MassHistPres] vandalism at the MFA

[Dennis De Witt]

Agreed!

Those completely gratuitous diagonal stone walls cutting off the bases of that magnificent colonnade reflect an unimaginable lack of understanding and appreciation of a magnificent work of architecture.  

It is difficult to image who is more at fault, the architect, who should not conceivably have been that illiterate, or the client whose sole raison d'être should be the preservation of our cultural heritage.

Those ramps are the equivalent putting duct tape across the Boit Brats' feet.

IMHO Dennis De Witt


On Jul 22, 2011, at 10:11 AM, rthenr at comcast.net wrote:

> I am disappointed to learn that The Boston Preservation Alliance has given a Preservation Achievement Award for "New Construction in Harmony with Boston's Built Environment" to The Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The alterations made to the Fenway entrance by British architect Sir Norman Foster disrespect Boston architect Guy Lowell's original and splendid Ionic colonnade by adding two handicapped access ramps with solid parapets which cut diagonally across the facade and hide the bases and lower parts of many of the columns. This unsettles the entire Fenway elevation and reduces it to a mere backdrop for the celebrity architect's  intervention.
>  
> Samuel R. Blair, AIA
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