Uffizi display space. As well, a new exit was planned and the lighting, air conditioning and security systems were updated. During construction, the museum remained open, although rooms were closed as necessary with the artwork temporarily moved to another location. For example, the Botticelli rooms and two others with early Renaissance paintings were closed for 15 months but reopened in October 2016. The major modernization project, New Uffizi, had increased viewing capacity to 101 rooms by late 2016 by expanding into areas previously used by the Florence State Archive. The Uffizi hosted over two million visitors in 2016, making it the
New exit for the Uffizi Gallery structure and that of the Loggia del Grano (its historic complement that dominates the corner across the street)and "become an instrument for the museum to communicate with the city". The project for the new exit of the museum continues to be a sensitive subject for Florentines. The project has been at a stand-still since 2003 when it was originally intended to be unveiled. The debate over the loggia became both a political argument as well as an aesthetic one. Ruins below the Uffizi were discovered not long after excavations began which made the project even harder to realize due to