From John King with respect to the proposed 150,000 square foot addition to SFMOMA:
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has narrowed the list of architects for its $250 million expansion to four firms that vary wildly in size and style – but which almost certainly guarantee the new wing will be a distinct contrast with the institution’s iconic home.
The finalists include one of the world’s best-known firms, Foster + Partners, which has two buildings at Stanford University and is finishing an extension to Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and cult favorite David Adjaye Associates, whose only completed building in the United States is a small museum in Denver.
The other finalists are Snøhetta, a Norwegian firm that designed the National Sept. 11 Memorial now being built in Lower Manhattan, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which was part of the design team behind the transformation of an old elevated train route into New York’s wildly popular High Line park.
The proposed expansion will “stretch south to Howard Street, spanning a portion of a public alley and two midblock sites now occupied by a city fire station and a commercial building owned by the museum.” Said alley and buildings (across the alley) above.
∙ 4 finalists bring contrasts to SFMOMA expansion [SFGate]
∙ SFMOMA Snags The Fisher Contemporary Art Collection [SocketSite]
∙ Foster + Partners Dropped From Transbay Terminal Design Comp [SocketSite]
∙ It’s Not San Francisco (But It Is A Diller Scofidio + Renfro Design) [SocketSite]
Go Snohetta! Their work is by far the most fascinating of the bunch in this writer’s opinion. Their library in Alexandria is a tour de force. If you went to hear partner Craig Dykers’ lecture a couple of weeks ago, he introduced a modest, socially conscious and deeply thoughtful firm which is sensitive to the environmental aspects and never lets “style” rule. Fantastic work!
UPDATE: Snøhetta Snags SFMOMA Expansion Project.