(continued)

Such a place, aside from showing original art, now provides places to eat, to buy souvenirs and reproductions, and to view virtual showings of real art in electronic formats. To meet these demands, and to survive the tough competition among museums for visitors, museums have taken to airing blockbuster shows, which alone have had a dramatic impact on planning and design.

Building Types: Museums

We organize our study of museums around a set of twenty questions most frequently asked about a building type, above all in the early phases of its design.

These questions cover such topics as predesign, circulation, unique design concerns, site planning, codes and access, energy and environmental challenges, structure, mechanical, and electrical systems, information technology, materials, acoustics and lighting issues, interiors, wayfinding, additions, renovation and retrofit issues, and matters of operation and maintenance, and financing.

Cost issues are not covered due to the tremendous variations among big city, regional, and overseas museum venues.

SFMOMA

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1995, was designed by Mario Botta, architect, in association with Helmuth, Obata + Kassabaum.

The 225,000-square-foot (21,000-square-meter) building is the second-largest single structure in the United States devoted to modern art (after New York's Museum of Modern Art). It replaces the museum's former location at the War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco's Civic Center, its home since its founding in 1935.

Site

SFMOMA is located in a former skid-row neighborhood known as SOMA (South of Market Street). Designated an urban redevelopment site by the city, the area now features other buildings for art by well-known architects.

In the Yerba Buena Gardens, opposite the new museum on Third Street and near the Moscone Convention Center, are the Center for the Arts' Visual Art Center, designed by Fumihiko Maki and the Center for the Arts Theater, a comprehensive performing-arts complex designed by James Stewart Polshek.

Design

SFMOMA features a stepped-back brick and stone facade distinguished by a soaring truncated cylinder emerging from the roof. To the rear, a five-story tower houses galleries as well as the museum's curatorial and administrative offices.

The sides of the rear of the building have been designed to anticipate needs for future additional gallery space and program development. Other key features of the building include the following:

Fifty thousand square feet (4600 square meters) dedicated to galleries, double the original space for this purpose. Included are three galleries, about 7,500 square feet (700 square meters) each, and more than 20 separate gallery spaces, each 500 to 3,500 square feet (45 to 325 square meters).

On the lower or basement level are photography and graphic arts study areas; a 100-seat classroom; a library for more than 65,000 books, catalogs, and periodicals; storage, receiving, and handling spaces; and mechanical rooms to house the climate-control system.

Opening off the central atrium on the ground floor are a 280-seat theater for lectures, symposia, seminars, films, and video programs; two large workshop/studios; a book/gift shop; and a cafe.

The first-floor gallery, with 16-foot (5-meter) ceilings, houses selections from the permanent collection and provides spaces for the architecture and design program.

A second-floor gallery with artificial light and 12-foot (3.5-meter) ceilings, exhibits photographs and works on paper.

The top two gallery floors, with 18-foot (5.5-meter) and 23.5-foot (7-meter) ceilings, are for special and temporary exhibitions, large-scale contemporary art from the permanent collection, and multiple-use event space.

On the fourth floor is a state-of-the-art facility for art conservation. On floors 2 through 4 in the rear are administrative and curatorial offices

Ceiling systems — light condensers — combine artificial and natural light for the two top floors of temporary exhibition galleries. These systems eliminate the destructive ultraviolet portions of the spectrum and control footcandle levels.

Arthur Rosenblatt, FAIA, is author of Building Type Basics for Museums and principal of RKK&G Museum and Cultural Facilities Consultants. Stephen A. Kliment, FAIA, is an architectural journalist and series founder and editor of the "Building Type Basics" series.

This article is excerpted from Building Type Basics for Museums, copyright © 2000, and is available from John Wiley & Sons and Amazon.com.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art by Mario Botta. View from Howard Street. Photo: Robert Cainfield Entrance atrium providing visual orientation to all exhibition galleries. Photo: Robert Cainfield View of atrium landing at fourth floor. Photo: Robert Cainfield Architect's conceptual sketch. Image: Mario Botta SFMOMA site plan. Image: Mario Botta First floor plan. Image: Mario Botta Second floor plan. Image: Mario Botta Third floor plan. Image: Mario Botta   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.