The Rapidly Expanding Museum

There are a dozen or more museums around the country presently planning or carrying out expansions. It's hard to think of a museum that hasn't expanded at some point during the last two decades. Once upon a time, museums grew simply because they needed more space to accommodate the increasing visitorship that began in the 1960s and has continued virtually uninterrupted ever since. Until the 1978 completion of its I.M. Pei-designed East Building, for example, the National Gallery had nowhere to show temporary exhibitions.