City of culture and education, Berkeley is proudly inaugurating this week a stunning downtown landmark, the Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed building for its Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). Anchored across the street from the UC campus, the shimmering white building with its steel veils and cantilevers strikes as an epic, multifaceted, yet stylishly unified 83,000 ft sq compound. It merges seamlessly the former 1939 Art Deco industrial printing plant – entirely restructured and revamped – and a brand new lateral wing, with its 232-seat state of the art movie theater.
The high ceiling volumes have been cloistered into different exhibition spaces – lounges, auditoriums, atriums and galleries – both whimsical and airy thanks to skylight and lateral bays with street views. The whole visit has been purposely turned into a poetic wandering, spiced with peekaboos, like dramatic, syncopic undercuts, or electric orange areas. Without overwhelming the fascinating opening exhibition ('Architecture of Life'), the building offers a seducing experience, from its four subterranean rooms (with a second, intimate 33-seat screening room, and an Asian art dedicated gallery) to its second floor gourmet cafe Babette: nested into a walkway, the beloved local foodie-heaven overhangs the plunging lobby, with its warm wooden bleachers and artists-project wall.
'We wanted a building that reflects the uniqueness is our dual identity, half art, half film', explained BAMPFA Director Lawrence Rinder during his inaugural remarks. Preserving the magic of the original building led the call to the NY based DS+R architects, the firm behind the High Line and Lincoln Center rehabilitations, as well as the Broad museum in LA (they are also currently in competition for the Obama Library). The brief stressed the notions of accessibility and transparency, for an engaging institution that strived to express itself as a welcoming hangout for all.
Symbolised also by the 30 foot wide outdoor LED screen (for street projections of the inside film programs), this mission was fully integrated as an architectural response in the shape of a 'permeable interface between the institution and the public'. Present at the press conference, Charles Renfro, the DS+R partner-in-charge, enumerated all the challenges – including excavating the entire existing footprint to double the floor area – to get to the resulting building, 'iconic and humble', 'completely porous'. Heralding its multimedia collections and activities, the BAMPFA is, as he summed it up, the perfect 'epitome of the 21st century museum'.
Pictured: the Oxford Street facade, with 1939 Art Deco administrative building on the left and the new stainless steel–clad theatre to the right
The high ceiling volumes have been cloistered into different exhibition spaces, lounges, auditoriums, atriums and galleries. Pictured left: Detail view of the curtain wall and stainless steel cladding along the Oxford Street façade. Right: Interior view of the multipurpose event space and mezzanine, with the underside of the theatre
The BAMPFA Director, Lawrence Rinder explains, ’We wanted a building that reflects the uniqueness is our dual identity, half art, half film’. Pictured: Interior view of the Barbro Osher Theatre
Charles Renfro, the DS+R partner-in-charge, sums BAMPFA up as the perfect ’epitome of the 21st century museum’. Pictured: the large ground-floor gallery with view into the cafe above
INFORMATION
Architecture of Life is on view from 31 January until 29 May. For more information, visit the website
ADDRESS
BAMPFA, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA 94704
-
Own an early John Lautner, perched in LA’s Echo Park hillsThe restored and updated Jules Salkin Residence by John Lautner is a unique piece of Californian design heritage, an early private house by the Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte that points to his future iconic status
-
20 things that positively delighted us in and around Design Miami this yearFrom covetable 20th-century masterpieces to a tower made from ceramic pickles, these were the works that stood out amid the blur of Art Week
-
Montcalm Mayfair opens a new chapter for a once-overlooked London hotelA thoughtful reinvention brings craftsmanship, character and an unexpected sense of warmth to a London hotel that was never previously on the radar
-
Own an early John Lautner, perched in LA’s Echo Park hills
The restored and updated Jules Salkin Residence by John Lautner is a unique piece of Californian design heritage, an early private house by the Frank Lloyd Wright acolyte that points to his future iconic status
-
The Stahl House – an icon of mid-century modernism – is for sale in Los AngelesAfter 65 years in the hands of the same family, the home, also known as Case Study House #22, has been listed for $25 million
-
Houston's Ismaili Centre is the most dazzling new building in America. Here's a look insideLondon-based architect Farshid Moussavi designed a new building open to all – and in the process, has created a gleaming new monument
-
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fountainhead will be opened to the public for the first timeThe home, a defining example of the architect’s vision for American design, has been acquired by the Mississippi Museum of Art, which will open it to the public, giving visitors the chance to experience Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius firsthand
-
Clad in terracotta, these new Williamsburg homes blend loft living and an organic feelThe Williamsburg homes inside 103 Grand Street, designed by Brooklyn-based architects Of Possible, bring together elegant interiors and dramatic outdoor space in a slick, stacked volume
-
This ethereal Miami residence sprouted out of a wild, jungle-like gardenA Miami couple tapped local firm Brillhart Architecture to design them a house that merged Florida vernacular, Paul Rudolph and 'too many plants to count’
-
Tour Cano House, a Los Angeles home like no other, full of colour and quirkCano House is a case study for tranquil city living, cantilevering cleverly over a steep site in LA’s Mount Washington and fusing California modernism with contemporary flair
-
An ocean-facing Montauk house is 'a coming-of-age, a celebration, a lair'A Montauk house on Hither Hills, designed by Hampton architects Oza Sabbeth, is wrapped in timber and connects its residents with the ocean
