With an estimated cost of $250 million, $12 million of which has already been raised, San Francisco State University hopes to break ground on its 242,150 square foot Mashouf Performing Arts Center at the corner of Lake Merced and Font Boulevards by 2013.
Designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture, the Center would be constructed in three phases over nine-ish years and include five theaters or recital halls ranging in size from 1,200 to 60 seats as well as state-of-the-art broadcast facilities.
∙ SF State unveils designs for Mashouf Performing Arts Center [sfsu.edu]
∙ Mashouf Performing Arts Center at San Francisco State University [archdaily.com]
∙ Michael Maltzan Architecture [mmaltzan.com]
∙ Mashouf Performing Arts Center at San Francisco State University [youtube]
Wow,
In my opinion, that’s a good looking building. Looks like a Chanel store or something.
Beautiful building and the main theater is stunning.
Nice building and nice design. Just wish we could give local work to local architects instead of diluting our local economy. Firms like Cavagnero, MacCracken, & Tom Eliot Fisch all have PA experience…
More like this, preferably as a 2BR2BA.
I understand that the building is going to be built in three phases, but from an outsider perspective it seems like they are seriously behind schedule on fund raising and thus probably won’t make it.
As a comparison, consider that UC Berkeley chose a completely different-looking, yet similarly innovative design by Tokyo architect Toyo Ito for its new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive downtown in 2006 and hoped to have the new museum completed by 2013. By November 2009, they’d raised about $81 million toward a $200 million capital campaign. And they gave up (I haven’t heard much about the project since then, so perhaps things have changed):
So I wish S.F. State well, but the downturn in 2009 was nothing compared to what’s going to happen later this year and next when voters don’t approve the tax extensions on the upcoming ballot (if it even gets there) and the Governor attempts to cover a $25 billion deficit by “cuts only” to state services.
I really like this. I wish we had more buildings with a lot of movement like this one. You can almost imagine it being folded like origami to arrive at its current shape, and that it might unfold again at any moment.
Thanks for the backstory, Brahma. I suppose we will have to keep our fingers crossed and hope they are able to raise the funds.
I thought there was no money for this in the state university system! But it is a beautiful building!
renderings are cheap; a quarter of a billion dollars is harder to come by.
“…as well as state-of-the-art broadcast facilities.”
Uh oh. I hope that this doesn’t mean that they will build the studio around the latest technology. If they do it won’t be state of the art once the building is complete. Recording and Broadcast technology is evolving rapidly.
The best way to future proof a building is to simply install generous amounts of conduit. Yes, plain old plastic tubes. So when Cat-5 becomes obsolete you just pull it out and run the newer media.
A prudent funds saving move would be to build such an upgradable studio and just re-use the old equipment until the school can afford to upgrade. But that won’t fly if there are big egos interlaced in this project.
^^ Actually, the truth is that electronic equipment obsoletes itself far faster than any transmission medium. I agree that “state-of-the-art” is always in flux, but for construction purposes what they would be interested in is a properly designed infrastructure (dedicated server rooms, sound-proofed booths, decent acoustics, etc). Those are the things that can’t readily be retrofitted into older spaces, and which I’m sure the staff at SF State wishes they had. Appropriate enterprise-grade cabling (which, by the way, is far beyond cat5 nowadays) will easily suffice for at least 15 years.
Yeah, the equipment goes out of date quicker than the media though I’ve seen state of the art video transmission media change at least five times in my life. Hopefully a building like this will have a very long life.
I sure hope that the prospectus for this project doesn’t explicitly state that it will be “3D ready”. Because that’s what the students need to succeed : the ability to produce in 3D?
A lovely building and a much needed facility. There are many in SF who can, and *should* step-up to the plate on funding this…
Is it unusual to have a rendering that shows a rainy day? I guess they wanted dramatic light to highlight the building against the dark storm clouds. (Are umbrellas included in the $250M price tag?)
I’m all for good arts and education infrastructure, but it seems ridiculous in these times that SFSU would contemplate a new complex when CCSF is just finishing a $200 million arts building with 3 theaters. I know that CCSF needed more space, but they had tons of land to use and might have been able to accomodate more theater and classroom space if SFSU had worked with them early on to meet the needs of both campuses. They are only about 2 miles apart. Time to think creatively rather than each campus having an edifice complex.