Well, it’s the end of June (already!? – *shudder*) and that earth-shatteringly important decision we’ve all been waiting for has come through the wires, as promised. BAM/PFA’s selection committee has awarded Diller Scofidio + Renfro the coveted project of building the new, much blabbered about museum. Read on for more info on the NY firm, pics.
In case you’re not up on the sitch: the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive are relocating to Downtown Berkeley – Oxford and Center streets in particular, the site of the former UC Printing Plant. At a budget of $95 million, it is the more modest successor to an original plan, which involved hugely famous Japanese architect Toyo Ito and a cutting edge design that thrust our fair museum into national headlines, but was rendered fiscally impossible by the recession.
The UC Printing Plant don’t look much like the plexiglasstastic Ito bluperint, but Diller Scofidio + Renfro aren’t too shabby as far as in-mode architecture firms go. They have designed the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (above) and the Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro, did work for the Juilliard School and Lincoln Center in New York, and B.A. entrepreneur/philanthropist Eli Broad apparently wants them to design his new Art museum in Los Angeles (though he has not reached an official decision.)
Here are a few pictures, renditions and models of past works (top down: Center for Human and Civil Rights, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, National Museum of African American History and Culture).
Image Source: HOK Life under Creative Commons
Image Source: saebaryo under Creative Commons
Image Source: afagen under Creative Commons
For images and info on all of their works, head over to the firm’s website. The Clog sends its congratulations to Diller Scofidio + Renfro and applauds the BAM committee for a sound and fiscally responsible decision. The new BAM/PFA is slated for completion in 2014.
Image Source (at top): Smart Destinations under Creative Commons
Firm Chosen to Plan New Design for Museum [Daily Cal]
