ART NEWS

Thursday, July 22, 2010 (SF Chronicle)

Snøhetta to design SFMOMA's vast new wing

SAN FRANCISCO -- Snøhetta, the architecture firm designing the museum at the World Trade Center site, is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's choice to design its new wing - a $250 million expansion likely to be the city's largest private project between now and the scheduled opening in 2016. The new wing will add roughly 160,000 square feet to SFMOMA's brick-clad home facing Yerba Buena Gardens. It will extend south to Howard Street, across an alley and onto a narrow site now occupied by two small buildings just east of the W Hotel tower. The firm, which has offices in Oslo and New York, was selected after a five-month search that winnowed a list of 35 possible architects to four finalists. Though Snøhetta has yet to complete a building in the United States, SFMOMA leaders express confidence that the 100-member firm will make its mark alongside the Mario Botta-designed museum of 225,000 square feet that opened in 1995. "It's key to us as an institution that we not become a period piece," said Neal Benezra, SFMOMA's director. "We're committed to maintaining a contemporary visual presence." The first hint of what this might mean architecturally isn't expected until next spring. That's when the museum hopes to reveal a potential design, said Benezra, who likened Snøhetta's work during the competition as "somewhere between an intellectual exercise and a practical proposal." The design team at Snøhetta will be led by Craig Dykers, who founded the firm in 1989 with Kjetil Thorsen. Wednesday, Dykers suggested that the Howard Street site - on an alley-sliced block with three major towers on the block - has more architectural promise than meets the eye. "The limits are so constrained, it allows you to relax and create something that isn't about (stand-alone) object and form," said Dykers, who works from the New York office. At the same time, he said the new wing shouldn't be too demure: "In a good marriage, both partners are strong and have their own qualities that make their union even stronger." Fisher collection The expansion is fueled by the museum's need to showcase the Fisher collection of 1,100 paintings and sculptures held in trust by the museum and the family that founded the Gap retail chain. The arrangement between the museum and the family was announced in September, just days before the death of family patriarch Donald Fisher. Since then, expansion plans have moved forward with remarkable ease. Despite a rocky economy, museum trustees have pledged $250 million to the expansion effort, which also would create a $230 million endowment. There has been no sign of political or public resistance of the sort that derailed earlier plans by the Fishers to build a family museum in the Presidio. The one bit of uncertainty now involves the question of which firm will be Snøhetta's local partner. During the competition, Snøhetta teamed up with San Francisco firm EHDD Architecture. But EHDD already is set to work as the architect of record on the new Berkeley Art Museum with New York's Diller Scofidio + Renfro, and Benezra suggested Wednesday that the choice of a local firm is yet to be made. As an example of the insularity of the architectural world, Diller Scofidio was a finalist at SFMOMA as well. The others were Foster + Partners and Adjaye Associates, both based in London. Work stood out The museum's selection committee had intended to make its decision after Labor Day. According to Benezra, though, visits during the past month to completed work by the finalists set Snøhetta apart. The firm is best known in the United States for its work on the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York City, which is scheduled to open on Sept. 11, 2011. But it also has crafted such small jewels as a town hall that resembles an abstract chalet in Hamar, Norway - and, the one that dazzled Benezra, the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo. "It's something I couldn't have imagined - innovative and thrilling and exciting and creative," said Benezra, who rarely gushes when speaking. Technically, SFMOMA's board of trustees must ratify the committee's decision in September. By then, Benezra hopes to resolve details of Snøhetta's contract. "After our visit to Oslo, there was no question that we had found our architects," Benezra said. "It was a beautiful moment." What's next What comes next for the $250 million expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - assuming all goes according to plan. Tuesday: Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on a deal where the city will give the museum the fire station at 676 Howard St., which is in the path of the planned expansion. In exchange, SFMOMA will build the city a new fire station on Folsom Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. Spring 2011: Initial design concepts to be released. 2012: New fire station to open. 2013: Construction to begin on new wing, which might require the existing museum to close at some point. Spring 2016: New wing opens.

E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com


International Art Fairs

1. Art Basel  (304 exhibitors)

2. Art Basel Miami (248 galleries)

3. Art Cologne (191)

4. Fiera di Bologne (165)

5. ARCO (164) in Madrid

6. Art Chicago (158)

7. the Armory Show (158 galleries) in New York

8. MiArt (156) in Milan

9. the Frieze Art Fair (150) London

10. the FIAC (149 galleries) Paris

 

 ART MARKET MONITOR Confidence Builders by Marion Maneker

.... Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn talked to a few buyers about their purchases and prices:

“It’s very difficult to value things at the moment,” said the New York-based art adviser David Nisinson, who bought a 1990 Gerhard Richter abstract for 529,250 pounds at Sotheby’s against a low estimate of 500,000 pounds. “So little has been traded recently that it’s hard to know what things are worth. It’s a market in flux. There’s more confidence than there was, but it’s fragile and depends on the financial markets. At least a lot of people have a lot more money than they did six months ago,” he said.

“There were some good things in the auction and estimates were reasonable,” said New York-based dealer Christophe van de Weghe. “It will give buyers confidence. People are able to see things are selling and there’s no panic in the market.” “Prices are back to the level of 2006 and 2007,” said Van de Weghe.

 

Fisher Collection Comes to SFMOMA

SFMOMA announced today the development of a groundbreaking relationship with Doris and Donald Fisher that would provide the Fisher Collection — one of the world's leading collections of contemporary art — with a home at SFMOMA.

The Fishers, who together founded Gap Inc. in 1969, have long envisioned keeping their collection intact for the public in their hometown of San Francisco. The Fisher Collection includes more than 1,100 works by leading artists including Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Anselm Kiefer, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Gerhard Richter, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol, among many others....

...."San Francisco is where we raised our family and opened our first Gap store, and we want to give back to the city we love by sharing the art that means so much to us," says Don Fisher. "Doris and I share a vision with SFMOMA to enhance its collections and programs and we are prepared to make a substantial gift to strengthen the museum's standing as one of the world's great contemporary art museums.".....

Fisher Collection Exhibition in 2010

SFMOMA is organizing a major exhibition of the Fisher Collection tha is scheduled to open in summer 2010 as part of its 75th anniversary celebration. On the weekend of January 16 through 18, the museum will kick off a yearlong schedule of special programs, exhibitions, and events exploring SFMOMA's impact and evolution as a leading cultural resource for the people of the Bay Area and visitors from around the world.