The transformed and expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opens to the public on Saturday, May 14, 2016. Purpose-built to showcase the museum’s celebrated collection, the new SFMOMA was designed by the architecture firm Snøhetta, and seamlessly integrates a 10-story expansion with the original Mario Botta-designed building. With nearly three times more gallery space than before, the museum is opening with 19 special exhibitions, including a curated selection of 260 postwar and contemporary works from the distinguished Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.
The expansion includes 170,000 square feet of new and renovated indoor and outdoor galleries tailored to the collection, enabling SFMOMA to display more of its outstanding holdings of modern and contemporary artworks.
A Transformed Home for SFMOMA
Craig Dykers, founding partner of Snøhetta and leader of the firm’s design team for SFMOMA, explains:
“Our design seeks to create an intimate experience, welcoming a diversity of visitors to the magnificent collection, and fostering a connection between the visitor and museum for years to come. All of the senses will be engaged as part of the experience. Wonderful day lit staircases lead visitors from floor to floor, the galleries create a comfortable viewing experience of the art, and terraces allow for moments of repose, to be reinvigorated by fresh air, sunlight and vistas of the city between galleries. The visitor should sense that the building is inspired by one of the great cities of the world, San Francisco.”
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