The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), a $112 million project that opened in late January, is a mix of old and new.
One part is an adaptive reuse of an Art Deco printing plant from 1939. Interdisciplinary design firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, along with executive architect EHDD, transformed the former printing plant into the primary gallery spaces of the museum.
While the Press Building has as classical look, a sleek new silver structure was added onto it. The new addition houses a film theater, library, study center, and a cafe.
The components total more than 83,000 sf, and a stainless steel ribbon wraps itself around the older structure, providing a visual link.
“The parts and pieces are intended to contrast with each other, but also to work together,” DS+R principal Charles Renfro said, according to the BAMPFA website.
The University of California at Berkeley museum has eight galleries with 25,000-sf of space, a theater, and an art lab. It holds 19,000 works of art and 17,500 films and videos.
The project is DS+R’s third building to open in California over the last year. The firm also designed The Broad Museum in Los Angeles and the McMurtry Art and Art History Building at Stanford University.
The museum's main entrance. Photo: Iwan Baan.
Ground floor gallery. Photo: Elizabeth Daniels.
Corridor above the ground floor gallery. Photo: Elizabeth Daniels.
Aerial view of the BAMPFA. Photo: Iwan Baan.
Related Stories
| Jun 18, 2014
Arup uses 3D printing to fabricate one-of-a-kind structural steel components
The firm's research shows that 3D printing has the potential to reduce costs, cut waste, and slash the carbon footprint of the construction sector.
| Jun 16, 2014
6 U.S. cities at the forefront of innovation districts
A new Brookings Institution study records the emergence of “competitive places that are also cool spaces.”
| Jun 13, 2014
First look: BIG's spiraling museum for watchmaker Audemars Piguet
The glass-and-steel pavilion's spiral structure acts as a storytelling device for the company's history.
| Jun 12, 2014
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects' design selected for new UCSC facility
The planned site is a natural landscape among redwood trees with views over Monterey Bay, a site that the architects have called “one of the most beautiful they have ever worked on.”
| Jun 12, 2014
Austrian university develops 'inflatable' concrete dome method
Constructing a concrete dome is a costly process, but this may change soon. A team from the Vienna University of Technology has developed a method that allows concrete domes to form with the use of air and steel cables instead of expensive, timber supporting structures.
| Jun 11, 2014
David Adjaye’s housing project in Sugar Hill nears completion
A new development in New York's historic Sugar Hill district nears completion, designed to be an icon for the neighborhood's rich history.
| Jun 9, 2014
Green Building Initiative launches Green Globes for Sustainable Interiors program
The new program focuses exclusively on the sustainable design and construction of interior spaces in nonresidential buildings and can be pursued by both building owners and individual lessees of commercial spaces.
| Jun 9, 2014
Eli Broad museum files $19.8 million lawsuit over delays
The museum, meant to hold Eli and Edythe Borad's collection of contemporary art, is suing the German company Seele for what the museum describes as delays in the creation of building blocks for its façade.
| Jun 4, 2014
Want to design a Guggenheim? Foundation launches open competition for proposed Helsinki museum
This is the first time the Guggenheim Foundation has sought a design through an open competition. Anonymous submissions for stage one of the competition are due September 10, 2014.
| May 29, 2014
7 cost-effective ways to make U.S. infrastructure more resilient
Moving critical elements to higher ground and designing for longer lifespans are just some of the ways cities and governments can make infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change, writes Richard Cavallaro, President of Skanska USA Civil.
