Boston-based Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has officially launched a new wing to the original building designed by award winning architect Renzo Piano. The current addition is to preserve the historic building and also to kick-start a whole new season of events and exhibitions.

The newly designed wing of the museum contains built-in spaces for concerts with 300 seats, special exhibition space and an educational centre.

This new wing is an extraordinarily elegant workshop, a bustling counterpoint to the historic building's serenity, ArthDaily quoted Anne Hawley, Norma Jean Calderwood Director of the Museum saying.

Reuters reported that Gardner left precise instructions on how her intimate collection of fine and decorative art can be arranged. Almost 90 years later, museum trustees honor her wishes.

The prime task for Piano was to find the perfect way of blending the new with the old.

He then designed the structure in such a way so as to pay a kind of homage to the old. Just like the older section, the current wing contains arched windows with pink walls. Apart from this, he has also designed the galleries around plant-filled courtyard.

The addition of the new wing has been part of a major restoration project by the museum. Since 1990, officials have worked on major restoration programs at the museum in order to stabilize its structure and help accommodate increased programming and attendance.

Earlier projects reportedly include replacing the skylight over the courtyard with thermal pane glass and installing a climate-control system.