San Francisco’s museum construction hat trick is about to become a grand slam.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announced yesterday that it will begin evaluating an international list of architects for a proposed 100,000 square foot expansion of its current 1995 Mario Botta-designed building. The announcement caps off a breathtaking three years in San Francisco that have seen three major institutions complete new structures—the California Academy of Science (Renzo Piano), the Contemporary Jewish Museum (Daniel Libeskind), and the de Young Museum (Herzog and de Meuron). Fundraising for the museum expansion and other programs has reached $250 million, over half of the museum’s $480 million campaign goal.
The museum expansion will ultimately house the Fisher collection of 1,100 art works by 20th century masters. The Fisher collection had been the subject of intense public debate when a new privately owned art museum was proposed for San Francisco’s Presidio. The outcry over the private structure on public land finally subsided when the Fisher family donated the collection to SFMOMA last year. SFMOMA also revealed yesterday that the “loan” period of the Fisher collection was extended from 25 years to 100 years, providing the curatorial anchor for the building expansion.
Neal Benezra, director of SFMOMA, stated that a select group of firms would be invited to submit proposals for the expansion. He anticipates selecting an architect by fall 2010 and completing construction in 2016.
When asked what architects were on the museum's list, Benezra said, "Right now, all of them. We have a very tight urban space, so we need someone who is a problem solver. And we want to make a strong architectural statement." Given the nature of any building or development project in San Franciso and the experience of other museums here, that architect will need to be part therapist, part evangelist, and part magician, too.
The selection of the SFMOMA architect is indeed critical to the success of the expansion design. Botta’s landmark brick façade on Third Street is imposing and iconic. That strong modernist form presents a challenge—how to create an addition that clearly is part of the original but at the same time stands on its own. Mimicry of the Botta architectural vocabulary simply won’t do nor will a design that screams for attention. The grand slam will be in achieving that balance. There, as the poet said, lies the rub.
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