To call to mind the waters of the bay, the renovated San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) uses more than 700 uniquely shaped fiberglass reinforced polymer (FRP) panels on its exterior, resulting in a tall, white, and wavy building. To really capture the eye, silicate crystals have been embedded to reflect changing light.
The architecture firm Snøhetta designed a 10-story expansion to the SFMOMA. Along with the new façade, the museum will have 170,000 sf of new and renovated indoor and outdoor gallery space, which triples the previous amount. The galleries are intimate, flexible, and column-free, giving artists more freedom with which to work.
The building has two main entrances, an education center, two restaurants, a coffee shop, a light-filled atrium, a third floor terrace with a public living wall with more than 19,000 plants, and a renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater, which now has a 4K projection screen.
“Our design seeks to create an intimate experience, welcoming a diversity of visitors to the magnificent collection, and fostering a connection between the visitor and museum for years to come,” Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta and leader of the design team for SFMOMA, said in a statement. “All of the senses will be engaged as part of the experience. Wonderful day lit staircases lead visitors from floor to floor, the galleries create a comfortable viewing experience of the art, and terraces allow for moments of repose, to be reinvigorated by fresh air, sunlight and vistas of the city between galleries. The visitor should sense that the building is inspired by one of the great cities of the world, San Francisco.”
Interactive touch screens have been installed in the painting and sculpture galleries, and a new app gives visitors a guided audio tour through both the museum and the surrounding SoMa neighborhood.
The museum opens May 14. More than $610 million was raised for the project, which has covered construction costs, the endowment, and support for education, art commissioning and exhibition programs.
SFMOMA contains 33,000 works of architecture and design, painting, photography and sculpture. It also has the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, a private collection of contemporary art featuring pieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Tony Cragg.
The museum was established in 1935. Swiss architect Mario Botta designed the museum’s current building, which opened in 1995. The Snøhetta expansion will be added onto it.
SFMOMA. Photo: Henrik Kam, courtesy SFMOMA. Click image to enlarge.
Helen and Charles Schwab Hall. Photo: Henrik Kam, courtesy SFMOMA. Click image to enlarge.
The Campaign for Art Contemporary exhibition. Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy SFMOMA. Click image to enlarge.
The exterior cladding and the living wall at the Pat and Bill Wilson Sculpture Terrace. Photo: Henrik Kam, courtesy SFMOMA. Click image to enlarge.
Related Stories
| Jul 19, 2013
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HOK, HDR top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 19, 2013
Renovation, adaptive reuse stay strong, providing fertile ground for growth [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Increasingly, owners recognize that existing buildings represent a considerable resource in embodied energy, which can often be leveraged for lower front-end costs and a faster turnaround than new construction.
| Jul 2, 2013
LEED v4 gets green light, will launch this fall
The U.S. Green Building Council membership has voted to adopt LEED v4, the next update to the world’s premier green building rating system.
| Jul 1, 2013
Report: Global construction market to reach $15 trillion by 2025
A new report released today forecasts the volume of construction output will grow by more than 70% to $15 trillion worldwide by 2025.
| Jun 28, 2013
Building owners cite BIM/VDC as 'most exciting trend' in facilities management, says Mortenson report
A recent survey of more than 60 building owners and facility management professionals by Mortenson Construction shows that BIM/VDC is top of mind among owner professionals.
| Jun 25, 2013
Mirvish, Gehry revise plans for triad of Toronto towers
A trio of mixed-use towers planned for an urban redevelopment project in Toronto has been redesigned by planners David Mirvish and Frank Gehry. The plan was announced last October but has recently been substantially revised.
| Jun 25, 2013
DC commission approves Gehry's redesign for Eisenhower memorial
Frank Gehry's updated for a new Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial in Washington, D.C., has been approved by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, reports the Washington Post. The commission voted unanimously to approve the $110 million project, which has been gestating for 14 years.
| Jun 5, 2013
USGBC: Free LEED certification for projects in new markets
In an effort to accelerate sustainable development around the world, the U.S. Green Building Council is offering free LEED certification to the first projects to certify in the 112 countries where LEED has yet to take root.
| Jun 3, 2013
Construction spending inches upward in April
The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that construction spending during April 2013 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $860.8 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised March estimate of $857.7 billion.
| May 21, 2013
7 tile trends for 2013: Touch-sensitive glazes, metallic tones among top styles
Tile of Spain consultant and ceramic tile expert Ryan Fasan presented his "What's Trending in Tile" roundup at the Coverings 2013 show in Atlanta earlier this month. Here's an overview of Fasan's emerging tile trends for 2013.