Architect Renzo Piano, a Pritzker Prize winner whose firm has designed and renovated art museums around the world, designed the new wing at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Architect Renzo Piano, right, and Anne Hawley, director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, met at the museum in 2008.

The original Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum building seen through windows of the new special exhibitions gallery, under construction on Nov. 23, 2010.

In the new gallery, natural light is controlled by a system of overlapping shades.

Construction of the museum on April 19, 2011.

The addition is clad in glass and patinated copper.

Building of the central stairway on April 19, 2011.

A view of the palace from the central staircase.

Aerial view of the construction site in June 2011 shows the original palace in the foreground and the new wing being built behind.

Construction in April 2011 of the glass-walled corridor that links the new wing to the existing museum.

In May 2011 workers built the glass-covered walkway

The glass corrider was completed and connected to the new wing.

Workers inside the Living Room, which is next to the main entrance, in April 2011.

The finished Living Room on Jan 11, 2012, is a place where visitors can talk to the staff at the museum.

The $114 million addition is slightly larger than Gardner's original at 70,000 square feet.

A view of an exterior staircase.

A construction worker worked on the glass facade in November 2011.

In the Calderwood Performance Hall, musicians tested the acoustics.

The Gardner Museum's new main entrance is on Evans Way.