The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is one step closer to a US$49m (€43.4m, £37.2m) facility expansion after the city’s Design Review Board approved the project unanimously.

Now moving on to its construction document phase, the project will enter a new round of city review and approvals ahead of a proposed groundbreaking later this year.

Plans originally envisioned a US$200m (€177m, £151.6m) expansion, but were abandoned following the death of the project’s architect Rick Mather in 2013.

New plans based on the original designs of Mather, with subsequent work from Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects, were unveiled last year. According to the new designs, the museum will gain a 40,000sq ft (3,716sq m) wing for galleries and temporary exhibition space, while a new 80,000sq ft (7,432sq m) Collection Stewardship Center will be built off-site.

Scheduled to open to the public in 2019, the three-storey development occupies the northwest corner of the museum complex where the Asian Garden – which will be relocated – currently sits. No existing galleries will be demolished during development and when the new wing opens, gallery space will be increased 15 per cent to 100,000sq ft (9,290sq m), ranking Peabody Essex among the top 20 art museums in the country for size.

The off-site stewardship centre by Boston-based firm, Schwartz/Silver Architects will provide space for the museum’s collection of 1.8 million objects to be stored and maintained. Slated for completion by 2019, the centre will also allow research and access to the collection.

The expansion is part of a larger ongoing US$650m (€575.6m, £492.8m) Advancement Campaign – a multi-year model for museum finance, fundraising and operations financed by the museum’s patrons and supporters.

Peabody Essex Museum reveals design collaboration behind US$200m facility expansion