The Linde wing today is more open, more friendly, and more social than before. A lot of what was best about the Pei wing remains untouched, including the Remis Auditorium and, of course, the great vaulted double-height spine known as the Galleria. Elsewhere, though, the improvements are striking.
The first improvement is simply in how you get there. Pei’s wing was made to serve as the main entrance despite the fact that it was located at a far corner of the museum. Entering there, directly from the parking lot, was like entering a mall. And when you got inside you had no idea where you were in relation to the rest of the museum.
That’s been changed. You now enter as in the old days, pre-Pei, by way of the museum’s original main doors, on Huntington Avenue or the Fenway. You work your way back to the Linde through a legible system of other galleries. When you get there, you know where you are and where you’ve come from. The Pei entrance will be reserved for groups, mostly school kids.
Improvement number two is a new openness. Glass walls seem everywhere. Standing in the Galleria, you can now look right through the new shop and restaurant to the greenery of an outdoor courtyard. In a second-floor gallery, a row of high windows - facing north, so there’s no glare - becomes a living mural of treetops. You feel for the first time a connection with the earth around you.
There are new vistas, too. If you look carefully enough, you may notice a visual link that’s a museum version of MIT’s famous Infinite Corridor. It runs the entire vast length of the museum, beginning at the far end of the Americas wing and terminating in the Linde at a Donald Judd wall sculpture.
