Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Exterior.
Formerly housed in Mario Ciampi’s 1970 Brutalist icon, the University of California at Berkeley’s Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive—which make up the school’s visual arts center—are moving to a 1939 Art Deco printing plant wrapped in a sleek, zinc-panelled addition. Initial designs by Tokyo-based Toyo Ito, Hon. FAIA, called for the plant’s demolition, but were abandoned due to a prohibitive $150 million budget. New York–based Diller Scofidio + Renfro created a new $90 million scheme that preserved the existing building, combining old and new in what Charles Renfro, FAIA, calls “a very sartorial way.” The museum’s broad-ranging collection will inhabit the existing 10,800-square-foot plant; excavation of a new basement level will add a 12,500-square-foot gallery for light-sensitive art. The Pacific Film Archive will be housed in the 30,000-square-foot addition, which will include a theater, café, and film library. “We’ve found a middle ground between making highly expressive architecture and also a highly respectful vessel for art,” Renfro says. The museum and archive will open in 2015.
