Prado Museum Unveils Spacious Extension
Saturday, March 31, 2007; 12:12 PM
MADRID, Spain -- The Prado museum unveiled a modernist new annex of red brick, granite, oak and marble Saturday, giving a first look at sorely needed exhibition space for one of Spain's main tourist attractions.
Designed by architect Rafael Moneo, the new space offers visitors plenty of natural light and blends in discreetly with the original gallery built in the early 19th century.
  Part of the new extension of the Prado Museum is seen next to the Jeronimos church in Madrid, Saturday March 31, 2007. Spain's Prado museum, one of the world's foremost art exhibition centers, on Saturday unveiled a spacious modernist extension designed by architect Rafael Moneo. Extension work began in 2001 with a budget of 42.6 million euros (US$56.7 million) and was to be finished in 23 months. The building however took over five years and 152 million euro (US$202 million) to complete. The construction work was formally declared finished, though the annex will not open fully until Fall. (AP Photo/Paul White) (Paul White - AP) PHOTOS |
The sober addition completes the first phase of the planned expansion of the Prado, which is considered to have the world's richest store of pre-20th-century masters, including Velazquez, Rubens, El Greco and Goya.
Moneo gave journalists a guided tour of the complex before Culture Minister Carmen Calvo formally declared construction work finished. The annex will not be open to the public until fall.
Extension work began in 2001 with a budget of $56.7 million and was scheduled to be finished in 23 months. The building, however, took more than five years and $202 million to complete.
"We have finished the biggest extension to the Prado in its more than 200 years of existence. It was a question of modernizing the Prado in harmony with its past," Calvo said.
The complex adds 183,000 square feet to the 312,000-square-foot museum.
Among special features are 15,070 square feet of temporary exhibition space, print and drawings rooms that will allow the gallery to display 1,000 Goya prints that are currently in storage.
The centerpiece of the extension is a space for sculpture built from the relocated cloister of a church, which sheds daylight on exhibition spaces three floors below.
"This extension lets the Prado breathe. It brings us in line with other major modern museums," said Gabriel Finaldi, the museum's director of conservation.
Finaldi said the extension would free up 40 rooms in the museum's original building.
The new exhibition space is connected by underground passageways to the original building.
Moneo's design initially caused controversy because it incorporated the cloister of the 15th-century Jeronimo church, which was removed stone by stone and reassembled inside the extension.
The work sparked several lawsuits by a group of Madrid residents complaining that the project would disrupt the architectural harmony of the neighborhood and the cloister would be ruined. The suits were dismissed by Madrid courts.
Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofia museums also have recently completed extensions. The three museums are within 10 minutes walk of each other, along the central Paseo del Prado boulevard.
Other works by Moneo, winner of the 1997 Pritzker Architecture Prize, include Madrid's Atocha commuter train station and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.
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