San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion, SFMOMA Building Design, Architect, Architecture

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion News

151 Third Street Building, California, USA: Opening – design by Snøhetta architects

Apr 28, 2016

SFMOMA Building Expansion

Design: Snøhetta, architects

New San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Opens to the Public on Saturday, May 14, 2016

Designed by Snøhetta, the Expanded SFMOMA Offers Free Access to Ground-Floor Galleries and Free Admission for Visitors 18 and Younger

Highlights from the Renowned Fisher Collection, Hundreds of Works Promised through the Campaign for Art and the New Pritzker Center for Photography Inaugurate Museum

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 28, 2016)—The transformed and expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opens to the public on Saturday, May 14, 2016. Purpose-built to showcase the museum’s celebrated collection, the new SFMOMA was designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta, and seamlessly integrates a 10-story expansion with the original Mario Botta–designed building.

With nearly three times more gallery space than before, the museum is opening with 19 special exhibitions, including a curated selection of 260 postwar and contemporary works from the distinguished Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, the first presentation of more than 600 works promised through the museum’s Campaign for Art, cherished favorites from SFMOMA’s permanent collection and works specially commissioned for the new museum. The expansion includes 170,000 square feet of new and renovated indoor and outdoor galleries tailored to the collection, enabling SFMOMA to display more of its outstanding holdings of modern and contemporary artworks.

The new building enables SFMOMA to be more welcoming and better connected to the city than ever before, with free public access to nearly 45,000 square feet of ground-floor galleries, as well as a permanent commitment to free admission for all visitors 18 and younger.

“We are so excited to open the doors and welcome the public to the new SFMOMA. We have an incredible new building, an expanded collection with thousands of new works of the highest quality, and a staff that is proud to share what they’ve been working on for the past three years. This is your SFMOMA and we can’t wait to share it with you,” said Neal Benezra, the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA.

To celebrate the grand opening of the new SFMOMA on May 14, the museum is hosting ribbon cutting festivities beginning at 8:30 a.m. SFMOMA distributed more than 5,000 free timed tickets for Opening Day and tickets are now sold out. Visitors with timed tickets are encouraged to arrive 30 minutes prior to their ticket time and the museum will open to ticket holders at 11 a.m. Neighboring institutions in the Yerba Buena cultural district also are offering free admission on May 14, with performances and artistic activations throughout the day. While tickets to the museum’s galleries on free Opening Day are sold out, tickets are available to purchase online for May 15 and onward at sfmoma.org.

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

SFMOMA Collection and Inaugural Exhibitions

SFMOMA is one of the foremost museums of modern and contemporary art, with an exemplary collection of more than 33,000 works of architecture and design, media arts, painting, photography and sculpture, as well as a groundbreaking 100-year partnership to show the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, one of the world’s greatest private collections of postwar and contemporary art.

Among the 260 selections on view from the Fisher Collection at the opening are important works of American abstraction, Pop, Minimal and figurative art by artists such as Chuck Close, Ellsworth Kelly, Lee Krasner, Roy Lichtenstein, Agnes Martin and Andy Warhol; works of German art after the 1960s by such artists as Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter; a broad range of Alexander Calder works from the late 1920s to the late 1960s; and sculpture by leading British artists including Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Barbara Hepworth and Richard Long.

Supported by a strong community of collectors, SFMOMA also has received more than 3,000 promised and outright gifts of artworks from 230 donors through the Campaign for Art. The inaugural exhibitions highlight the range and quality of 600 of these newly committed and acquired modern and contemporary works, including special installations focused on photography, contemporary art and drawing.

Photography has long been a cornerstone of SFMOMA, and the new Pritzker Center for Photography, made possible by the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund, offers the largest exhibition, interpretation and study space dedicated to photography in any art museum in the United States. The inaugural exhibition in the Pritzker Center’s permanent collection galleries includes works drawn from the museum’s collection illustrating photography’s complex and ever-changing relationship with time by artists such as Dawoud Bey, Julia Margaret Cameron, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Phil Chang.

SFMOMA’s vibrant commissioning program is being inaugurated in the new museum with a site-specific textile mural by Dutch designer Claudy Jongstra. New galleries dedicated to the art and artists of California underscore SFMOMA’s commitment to artists of the Bay Area and beyond, including David Ireland, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Wayne Thiebaud, in addition to artworks by California artists integrated throughout the museum. Architecture and design exhibitions on view at opening explore the lineage of graphic design, as well as the process behind Snøhetta’s design for the new SFMOMA.

A thematic media arts presentation centering on the notion of place presents works by five artists, including a surveillance-based installation by artist Julia Scher that has been conceived and adapted for each of SFMOMA’s sites using evolving technologies from 1993 to 2016. In addition, the first of a series of installations focused on selections from SFMOMA’s permanent collection provides fresh perspectives on cherished works, such as Henri Matisse’s Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat)(1905) and Mark Rothko’s No.14, 1960 (1960), among others.

A Transformed Home for SFMOMA

SFMOMA’s leadership worked closely with Snøhetta to design the new museum as an outward-looking and engaging gathering space. Connections to the surrounding neighborhood and city were carefully considered, along with bringing the benefits of landscape and the outdoors to the museum spaces. New pedestrian pathways around the museum and a new public entrance on Howard Street better integrate SFMOMA into the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood and activate the surrounding streetscape.

The iconic eastern façade of the Snøhetta-designed expansion, inspired in part by the waters and fog of the San Francisco Bay, is comprised of more than 700 uniquely shaped and locally fabricated FRP (fiberglass reinforced polymer) panels. Throughout the day, the movement of light and shadow naturally animates the rippled surface. Silicate crystals from Monterey County embedded in the surface catch and reflect the changing light.

Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta and leader of the firm’s design team for SFMOMA, said, “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. 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.”

Visitors are welcomed to the new museum by two main entrances, leading to ground floor exhibition spaces that are free to all. The entrance on Third Street welcomes visitors to the reimagined Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium, where the iconic oculus floods the space with natural light. Alexander Calder’s 27-foot-wide mobile, Untitled (1963), is suspended beneath the oculus, drawing the eye upwards, and a new sculptural stair leads visitors to Helen and Charles Schwab Hall, the main gathering space on the second floor.

On Howard Street, a new museum entrance adjacent to the glass-walled Roberts Family Gallery, allows visitors to enter the museum through Schwab Hall. Now presenting Richard Serra’s monumental sculpture Sequence (2006), the Roberts Family Gallery is a vibrant space visible to passersby, creating a visual connection between the city and the museum and showcasing SFMOMA’s community-focused mission. Inside, a set of maple-faced Roman steps provides an informal public gathering spot and seating area.

From both entrances, stairs lead visitors to Schwab Hall, the hub of the new museum. Visitors can enjoy a rotating installation of artworks, such as Sol LeWitt’s joyful Wall Drawing 895: Loopy Doopy (white and blue) (1999), or obtain admission to explore the rest of the museum. From here, a maple-clad stair leads upward to the third-floor Pritzker Center for Photography and the galleries above.

The new galleries in the Snøhetta-designed expansion are intimate in scale and create ideal conditions for viewing the artworks. Diverse gallery spaces support the display of specific collections and works of various scales. Minimal, flexible, column-free galleries permit countless temporary wall layouts—a blank canvas for the curators. At opening, visitors can experience a contemplative, octagonal-shaped gallery devoted to seven works by Agnes Martin and loft-like galleries on the seventh floor that offer space for contemporary artworks.

Terraces adjacent to many galleries extend exhibitions into the city, displaying outdoor sculptures and offering unparalleled views of San Francisco. The new third-floor Pat and Bill Wilson Sculpture Terrace is home to the largest public living wall in the United States with more than 19,000 plants and 21 native species. This curated sequence of spaces allows visitors to move between incredible artworks to broad overlooks, and enjoy views of the city as they circulate through and up the museum.

Complementing the museum’s incredible art galleries, the new SFMOMA features dynamic educational program and performances. The new Koret Education Center serves students, teachers and lifelong learners with a resource library and studio classrooms. SFMOMA partnered with Bay Area innovator Meyer Sound to install sound solutions throughout the museum, including a state-of-the-art Constellation acoustic system in the newly renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater. The Wattis Theater screens archival film and offers cutting-edge 4K projection. The new Gina and Stuart Peterson White Box is a uniquely flexible space, with a theatrical truss that supports a variety of performances, events or large scale artworks.

The new SFMOMA is on track to receive LEED Gold certification, and is one of the first museums in the country to employ all LED lighting throughout the gallery spaces. This measure helped the museum meet its ambitious sustainability goals.

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

Digital Engagement

SFMOMA’s reinvented digital program, generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, offers accessible, interactive experiences that break down the boundaries between art, entertainment and learning. The museum’s new app includes immersive phone-in-pocket audio journeys through the galleries, with brief reflections and fresh perspectives on artworks by composers, comedians, artists, playwrights and others; and a series of audio walks through San Francisco’s urban fabric, beginning inside the building and moving out into the SoMa neighborhood.

The museum is incorporating digital tools into participatory learning environments, such as the Photography Interpretive Gallery, generously supported by the McEvoy Family, in the Pritzker Center for Photography, and two interactive spaces in the painting and sculpture galleries, which feature touch screens and digital tables that allow visitors to explore artworks and the careers of artists more deeply. Photography Interpretive Gallery exhibits are supported by Bank of the West. Additional support is provided by Nion McEvoy; a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor; and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Visitor Amenities

The new SFMOMA offers visitors three dining opportunities—In Situby Michelin three-starred Chef Corey Lee for lunch and dinner; Sightglass at SFMOMAfor coffee and pastries, adjacent to the museum’s new Photography Interpretive Gallery; and Cafe 5 for light, California-fusion fare, which can be enjoyed either inside in the fifth-floor pavilion or outside in the Jean and James Douglas Family Sculpture Garden.

The newly renovated Museum Store on the first floor features a wide selection of art books, home accessories and furnishings, artist-made jewelry, toys, prints and more. The new Satellite Store on the second floor showcases exclusive SFMOMA-branded items and art-related merchandise. The SFMOMA Museum Store also has a location on the departure level at the SFO International Terminal, open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as online shopping at museumstore.sfmoma.org. Every purchase from the Museum Store supports SFMOMA’s exhibitions and education programs.

Support

SFMOMA has reached a capital campaign milestone of more than $610 million raised from more than 1,200 donors, including $305 million for the expansion project, $245 million for its endowment and $60 million in program and operating costs to support the museum’s three-year On the Go period.

SFMOMA is pleased to acknowledge Premier Sponsors Bank of America and Cadillac. Premier Sponsors partner with the museum throughout the year, helping underwrite art, education and community programs. Free Opening Day on May 14 is supported by PG&E, with additional support provided by the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District.

SFMOMA Hours and Admission
SFMOMA is open to the public seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Labor Day. Free public spaces open at 9 a.m. daily. The museum hosts extended hours on Thursdays until 9 p.m., giving visitors the opportunity to enjoy exhibitions and programs in the evening.

Annual membership begins at $100, and members enjoy unlimited free admission (with advance reservation). Adult admission to SFMOMA is $25 and admission for seniors 65 years and older is $22. Admission for visitors ages 19 through 24 is $19. SFMOMA provides free admission to all visitors 18 and younger, furthering its goal of building the next generation of art lovers.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Founded in 1935 as the first West Coast museum devoted to modern and contemporary art, a thoroughly transformed SFMOMA, with significantly enhanced gallery, education and public spaces, opens to the public on May 14, 2016. With six art-filled terraces, a new sculptural staircase and Roman steps where the public can gather, access to 45,000 square feet of free art-filled public space and free admission for visitors age 18 and younger, SFMOMA is more welcoming and more connected to San Francisco than ever before.

Visit sfmoma.org or call 415.357.4000 for more information.

Mar 20 + Feb 3, 2016

SFMOMA Expansion

Design: Snøhetta, Norway

The Transformed SFMOMA to Unveil Exhibitions of Renowned Fisher Collection, Promised Gifts and Cherished Favorites from the Permanent Collection, First Presentation in the New Pritzker Center for Photography and Site-Specific Commissions

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

SAN FRANCISCO (February 3, 2016)—The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) announces the inaugural exhibitions for the expanded and transformed museum opening to the public on May 14, 2016. With nearly triple its previous gallery space, SFMOMA will showcase 260 works from the distinguished Doris and Donald Fisher Collection of postwar and contemporary art, more than 600 artworks promised to the museum through its Campaign for Art on view for the first time, cherished favorites from its permanent collection, as well as recent work commissioned for the new museum.

“The opening of the new SFMOMA celebrates extraordinary growth of many kinds,” said Neal Benezra, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. “From a beautifully transformed building with dramatically enlarged gallery spaces, to our strategically expanded collection and enriched programming, SFMOMA embraces its enhanced role in the Bay Area and the international cultural world, offering its visitors unparalleled experiences with modern and contemporary art.”

The Snøhetta-designed expansion, which incorporates the renovated Botta building that opened in 1995, includes 170,000 square feet of new and renovated galleries tailored to the collection, enabling SFMOMA to display more of its outstanding holdings of more than 32,000 modern and contemporary artworks by Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman and numerous others. Deeply integrated into the city, the museum will include an art-filled ground floor open to all free of charge and will offer free admission to visitors 18 and younger.

The new SFMOMA will be open seven days a week from 10 am to 5 pm through Labor Day. The museum will offer extended hours on Thursdays, as well as free early morning access to the museum’s unticketed ground floor area. Permanent hours and a series of free community days will be announced at a later date.

Website: SFMOMA Expansion

23 Oct 2015

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion Update

Design: Snøhetta

Location: 151 Third Street, San Francisco, California, USA

An Expanded and Transformed San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to Open on 14 May 2016

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

Inaugural Installation to Present Artworks from the Renowned Fisher Collection, SFMOMA’s Campaign for Art, and the New Pritzker Center for Photography

Building Expansion Designed by Snøhetta Offers Nearly 45,000 Square Feet of Free Public Access in Ground Floor Galleries and Free Admission for Visitors 18 and Younger Museum Reaches $610 Million Milestone with Capital Campaign Contributions From 500 Donors

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) today announced that a thoroughly transformed SFMOMA will open to the public on Saturday, May 14, 2016, offering nearly three times the previous exhibition space, featuring 260 works from the Fisher Collection, a first showing of more than 600 artworks promised to the museum, the debut of the new Pritzker Center for Photography and an outward-looking architectural design that weaves the museum into the city as never before.

SFMOMA also announced it has reached a capital campaign milestone of $610 million raised which, in addition to covering construction costs, has more than tripled its endowment. Over 500 donors have supported the campaign and fundraising continues for education, art commissioning and exhibition
programs at the museum.

Major components of SFMOMA’s seven-year expansion project include:
• construction of a 10-story, 235,000-square-foot addition designed by the internationally acclaimed architecture firm Snøhetta, integrated seamlessly with the museum’s existing 225,000-square-foot building designed by Mario Botta
• an unprecedented public/private partnership with the world-renowned Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, displaying the works at SFMOMA and presenting exhibitions for the next 100 years. In its opening presentation, SFMOMA will display nearly 260 works from the Fisher Collection by nearly 70 postwar and contemporary artists
• a multi-year collections campaign—the Campaign for Art—which to date has secured more than 3,000 artworks promised to the museum from over 200 donors, enhancing key areas of the museum’s holdings and providing visitors with a fuller, more textured view of the art of our time
• the Pritzker Center for Photography, the largest gallery, research and interpretive space devoted to this medium in any U.S. art museum
• a vibrant commissioning program that will begin with works by Claudy Jongstra and Julie Mehretu and will also commission performance works
• a new partnership with the San Francisco Film Society that will enable SFMOMA to provide its first ongoing film program—Modern Cinema—in the newly renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater
• free admission in perpetuity for all visitors 18 and younger
• and nearly 45,000 square feet of free public access, confirming SFMOMA’s role as a vital cultural and social hub in the heart of San Francisco

Other significant benefits of the expansion project include an enhanced presence for performance, made possible by a double-height White Box space; an increase in programs for children and families in the new Koret Education Center; a two-story conservation center adjacent to the galleries; and a global culinary experience in the new restaurant In Situ led by Corey Lee, chef-owner of the Michelin three-star restaurant, Benu.

“This expansion enables us to tap more fully into the energy all around us, in a region known for its special creativity and beauty, while greatly increasing the presentations of a collection that includes remarkable concentrations of artworks that can be found nowhere else,” said Neal Benezra, the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. “I am thrilled to announce that in just a few months, we will be welcoming the public to the stunning new expansion Snøhetta designed to fulfill these aspirations.”

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

“On May 14th San Francisco will experience the extraordinary scope of the SFMOMA collection for the first time and see firsthand how the newly expanded museum will be able to serve our community, art lovers and school children in exciting ways we’ve only dreamed of doing in the past,” said Charles R. Schwab, Chairman of SFMOMA’s Board of Trustees. SFMOMA’s new website, which launched today and reflects the museum’s new institutional branding, can be found at sfmoma.org.

photo © John McNeal, courtesy of Snøhetta

Grounf Floor
Inaugural Installation Highlights Gifts in All Collecting Areas Ground Floor Modern and contemporary art will welcome visitors to the new SFMOMA from every entrance. On the ground floor of the Snøhetta-designed expansion, visitors and passersby will find Richard Serra’s monumental sculpture Sequence (2006) in the free-to-visit, glass-walled Roberts Family Gallery, made possible by Linnea and George Roberts, where Roman steps will provide an inviting space to reflect and gather. On the Third Street side of the museum, a 26-foot-wide mobile, Untitled (1963) by Alexander Calder, will greet visitors in the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium.

photo © Henrik Kam, courtesy of SFMOMA

Floor 2
The Helen and Charles Schwab Hall is the central meeting place for visitors beneath Sol LeWitt’s joyful Wall Drawing 895: Loopy Doopy (white and blue) (1999).

The museum’s presentation on the second floor will feature many beloved touchstone works in the permanent collection galleries, ranging from Henri Matisse’s Femme au chapeau (1905), Frida Kahlo’s Frieda and Diego Rivera (1931), Jackson Pollock’s Guardians of the Secret (1943) and Mark Rothko’s No.
14 (1960).

A new second-floor gallery for works on paper will feature promised gifts from the Campaign for Art such as collages and drawings by Eva Hesse, Jess, Ellsworth Kelly and Bruce Nauman. The adjacent galleries for California Art will include paintings and sculptures by figures such as Robert Arneson, Joan Brown, Bruce Conner and Wayne Thiebaud. Two interactive learning galleries provide context for visitors.

Just off of Schwab Hall, the Koret Education Center, with a resource library and classrooms, will serve as an educational hub for students, teachers and lifelong learners.

Floor 3
On the third floor, the Pritzker Center for Photography, made possible by the Lisa and John Pritzker Family Fund, will offer 15,000 square feet of gallery, study and interpretive space—the largest permanently dedicated to photography in any U.S. art museum. The Pritzker Center for Photography will display works from the museum’s impressive holdings of more than 17,800 works, including photographs of the landscape and culture of the American West, as well as recent promised gifts to the photography department.

Galleries dedicated to the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection begin on the third floor with a gallery and adjacent outdoor sculpture terrace devoted to the works of Alexander Calder. In total, SFMOMA will present nearly 260 works from the Fisher Collection by nearly 70 postwar and contemporary artists on view on floors four, five and six.

Floor 4
In the special exhibition galleries on the fourth floor, visitors will find promised gifts from the Campaign for Art, including works by Francis Bacon, Vija Celmins, Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Overview Press Release 4 Jackson Pollock, Ed Ruscha and single galleries devoted to Diane Arbus and Joseph Beuys. This exhibition will also feature promised gifts of architecture and design, including iconic chairs from the past 100 years and original models and plans of experimental architecture. Media arts will be represented by concentrations of works by Lynn Hershman Leeson and Nam June Paik.

The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection Galleries on the fourth floor will focus on American abstraction, with major works by Philip Guston, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell and Cy Twombly. A contemplative, octagonal-shaped gallery will be devoted to eight works by Agnes Martin, and four galleries will highlight the work of Ellsworth Kelly in a “mini museum” of the artist’s oeuvre.

Floor 5
The installation of the Fisher Collection continues on the fifth floor with a focus on Pop art and Minimalism, displaying works by Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Visitors will also find a light-filled indoor sculpture gallery, made possible by Jean and James Douglas, featuring work by British sculptors. The fifth floor bridge to the outdoor Sculpture Terrace will feature a site-specific, commissioned work by Dutch artist Claudy Jongstra—a hanging tapestry using wool dyed from Bay Area geological resources.

Floor 6
The Fisher Collection Galleries on the sixth floor will explore postwar German art with monumental works by Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter, as well as photographs by Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth. Video installations by international artists William Kentridge and Shirin Neshat will also be presented. The sixth floor will also feature a gallery space dedicated to architecture and design, which will display an opening exhibition of works of graphic design.

Floor 7
Finally, the seventh floor will showcase promised gifts of contemporary art including works by Mark Bradford, Jeff Koons, Charles Ray and Cindy Sherman in a loft-like gallery framed by extensive city views from the adjacent outdoor terrace. Visitors will also find galleries dedicated to media arts including works by Beryl Korot and Julia Scher. A two-story conservation lab and artist’s studio complete the seventh floor.

Architectural Design Draws the City into SFMOMA

Conceived to create an outward-looking and engaging SFMOMA, the design by Snøhetta begins by activating the streets around the original Botta building to create pedestrian pathways, open new entrances and integrate the museum more deeply into the South of Market neighborhood. Craig Dykers, co-founding partner of Snøhetta and leader of the firm’s design team for SFMOMA, said, “It has been a privilege for us to work with Neal Benezra, Ruth Berson, the curatorial team and Mario Botta’s building within the context of San Francisco.

Our goals were to provide the curators with clean, uncluttered galleries that feel intimate in scale and right for the artworks, to establish new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Overview Press Release 5 physical connections to the city that will foster social interaction, and to join with the Botta building in such a way that our expansion seems to rise like a continuation of its terraces, even while offering a new image that reflects the Bay Area’s natural setting.”

Two main entrances sit on axis to a major civic corridor running through Yerba Buena Gardens and the Moscone Center in the west and the future Trans Bay Center in the east. By setting the volume of the new building back from the Botta building, Snøhetta has created a new pathway and a glass-walled museum entrance on Howard Street. The eastern façade of the Snøhetta expansion, inspired in part by the waters of the San Francisco Bay, comprises more than 700 uniquely shaped FRP (fiberglass reinforced polymer) panels affixed to a curtain-wall system to create rippling horizontal bands. Silicate crystals from Monterey Bay embedded in the surfaces of the panels catch the changing light and cause the façade to shift in appearance throughout the day.

The entrance level to the new SFMOMA will offer exhibition spaces that are free to all. The Third Street entrance space reveals a reinvigorated Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium, under the iconic oculus that is now fully exposed. Snøhetta opened up this space by removing the monumental Botta staircase, allowing the oculus to flood the space with light, and replacing it with a suspended sculptural stair that leads to the main lobby—the Helen and Charles Schwab Hall—on the second floor. SFMOMA has partnered with Meyer Sound to deliver optimal acoustics in the newly renovated Phyllis Wattis Theater, including installation of a Meyer Sound Constellation Acoustic System.

On the Howard Street side, visitors can enter through the glass-walled Roberts Family Gallery, entirely transparent to passersby on the street, which is installed with Richard Serra’s monumental sculpture Sequence. A set of maple-faced Roman steps provides an informal public gathering spot and seating area.

The spacious Schwab Hall is the place where all of the entrance paths converge and is the hub of the new museum. Here visitors may choose to mingle and enjoy a rotating installation of artworks, or obtain admission to the rest of the museum. Another maple-clad staircase leads visitors to the third floor Pritzker Center for Photography and clerestory windows reveal a portion of the museum’s Living Wall of 15,000 plants, including 24 native plant species, the largest in the Bay Area.

The exhibition galleries designed by Snøhetta remain intimate in scale even though the project as a whole is large. They are flexible and column-free, with hidden HVAC, electrical, security and safety infrastructure to eliminate visual clutter. The modular ceiling system diffuses ambient light evenly throughout the galleries.

Sponsors
SFMOMA is pleased to acknowledge our new Premier Sponsor, Bank of America. When SFMOMA reopens, Premier Sponsors will partner with the museum throughout the year, helping underwrite our art, education and community programs.
Bloomberg Philanthropies has generously supported the development of SFMOMA’s new mobile app and is the lead sponsor of the museum’s digital experience.
SFMOMA thanks Bank of the West for sponsoring the exhibits in the Photography Interpretive Gallery in the Pritzker Center for Photography.

Snøhetta are based in Oslo, Norway but have a few american projects

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Snøhetta architects, Norway

Website: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Expansion

Address: 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103, United States
Phone: +1 415-357-4000

Location: 151 3rd St, San Francisco, North California, USA

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