 The most important addition to the building in recent years has been the Sainsbury Wing , designed by the postmodernist architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to house the collection of Renaissance paintings , and built in 1991 . The building occupies the " Hampton 's site " to the west of the main building , where a department store of the same name had stood until its destruction in the Blitz . The Gallery had long sought expansion into this space and in 1982 a competition was held to find a suitable architect ; the shortlist included a radical high @-@ tech proposal by Richard Rogers , among others . The design that won the most votes was by the firm <unk> , Burton and <unk> , who then modified their proposal to include a tower , similar to that of the Rogers scheme . The proposal was dropped after the Prince of Wales compared the design to a " monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much @-@ loved and elegant friend " , The term " monstrous carbuncle " , for a modern building that clashes with its surroundings , has since become commonplace . 
