The canaries are bathed, the flat-screen televisions wired up, and the leaves of the rubber plants washed.
This is life at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as dozens of workers make the final preparations for what is sure to be a busy week. Today, the Gardner unveils its $118 million expansion and renovation project to the media. From there, a series of events, many of them star-studded affairs for private donors, will take place, leading up to the Gardner’s public opening on Jan. 19.
Under the steady din of electric drills, the workers rushed through the museum like commuters hustling for a rush-hour train. “It’s slightly overwhelming, but everybody’s getting a buzz from feeling everybody running around,’’ said M.K. Wong, the Gardner’s new museum shop manager.
Starting the day after Christmas, Wong has worked every day, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., weekends included. She doesn’t mind.
“It’s nice to know we’re all in this together,’’ she said.
The Gardner’s new wing is next to the Venetian-style palazzo, connected by a glass passageway. The new building, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, includes galleries, a restaurant, a 296-seat concert hall, space for educational programs, a greenhouse, and artist residences. The 70,000-square-foot space will also serve as the museum’s new entrance.
The project, in the works for more than a decade, came to life in 2009 when excavation work began on the Gardner site. Director of operations James Labeck has been overseeing the work since then. Every big museum job has somebody like Labeck. He’s little known by the public but central to the phalanx of workers brought in to create museum spaces and fit them to the needs of the museum staff.
“The questions might be big, about the music hall or tapestry room, or they can be ‘I thought my desk was going to be 4 feet wide, not 5 feet wide,’ ’’ he joked last week.
It is Labeck who filed the hundreds of pages of documents required for the Gardner to get approvals from city and state regulatory boards. These days, Labeck admits he’s looking forward to doing just his old job, overseeing the museum’s security staff and maintenance, among other areas. The project has been all-consuming. The Fender Telecaster guitar that Labeck keeps in his office hasn’t been played in months. He’s been too busy.
With opening day approaching, Labeck wore jeans, work boots, and an orange Patagonia sweatshirt.
“I wear orange so people can see me,’’ he said, before chasing down the curator of contemporary art. He wanted to talk with Pierrana Cavalchini to coordinate on when to close the doors of the new gallery.