A new wing for the Art of the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston is scheduled to open on 20 November.

Designed by architects Foster + Partners, the extension will be located to the east of the museum's existing 1909 Beaux Arts building. The 121,307sq ft (11,270sq m) wing will increase the museum's footprint by 28 per cent to 616,937sq ft (57,000sq m) and enable the MFA to more than double the number of American works on show.

Over 5,000 items - ranging from pre-Columbian gold and Native American textiles to portraits of Revolutionaries and Abstract Expressionist paintings - will be displayed across four floors in 53 galleries, a total of 51,338sq ft (4,700sq m), including nine period rooms and four 'Behind the Scenes' educational spaces.

The new structure also incorporates the 12,184sq ft (1,100sq m), 63ft-high (19m), glass-enclosed Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard; a new space for special exhibitions; the 150-seat, 2,128sq ft (198sq m) Barbara and Theodore Alfond Auditorium; two studio arts classrooms; a visitor centre and conservation laboratories.

In addition to the construction of the new wing, the MFA has seen renovation work carried out on the original building. These include the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance to the north and the Huntington Avenue Entrance on the Avenue of the Arts to the south, a move designed to provide a coherent plan for navigation throughout the building. Also renovated were the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Visitor Center and various galleries and conservation laboratories.

Externally, the museum's campus has received new landscaping - by landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol of Seattle - in a design which includes more than 1,000 holly bushes and 50 trees.