The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and a thriving cultural hub for the Bay Area. The outstanding collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in a LEED Gold certified building designed by global architects Snøhetta and Mario Botta.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art History, Architecture, Artifacts
Plans to expand the museum at its former location, on the upper floors of the Veterans Memorial Building at San Francisco’s Civic Center, were thwarted in the late 1980s. In the summer of 1988, architects Mario Botta, Thomas Beeby and Frank Gehry were announced as finalists in a competition to design the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s new Downtown structure. Among the semi-finalists were Charles Moore and Tadao Ando. The three finalists would submit site-specific design proposals later that year, but the museum canceled its architecture competition after just a month and went with the 45-year-old architect Botta.
Planned with architects Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, the new museum was built on a 5,500-square-foot parking lot on Third Avenue between Mission and Howard streets. South of the Market, an area mostly made up of parking lots near the Moscone Convention Center, was targeted in a deal between the museum, the redevelopment agency, and the Olympia & York development firm. The land was provided by the agency and the developer, but the rest of the museum was privately funded. Construction of the new museum began in early 1992, with its opening in 1995, the institution’s 60th anniversary.
In 2009, SFMOMA opened its 1,340 square meter roof garden. Following an invitational competition held in 2006, the garden was designed by Jensen Architects in collaboration with Conger Moss Guillard Landscape Architecture. It features two outdoor spaces and a glass pavilion with views of the San Francisco skyline, along with the museum’s sculpture collection. It also serves as an indoor/outdoor gallery throughout the year.
Opened in May 2016, the nearly 235,000-square-foot expansion joins the existing building with a new addition stretching from Minna to Howard Streets. The expanded building consists of seven floors dedicated to arts and public programming, and three floors that house the enhanced support area for the museum’s operations. It offers approximately 13,200 square meters of indoor and outdoor gallery space, as well as approximately 1,400 square meters of free-access public space filled with art; art and provides almost six times more public space than the pre-expansion building.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Architecture, Interiors
In addition to seven gallery floors, SFMOMA offers 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to the public. SFMOMA believes that the art of our time is vital and shares it with passion and purpose, and that art and the creative process can open minds and help build a better world. Therefore, it creates unique collections and exciting exhibits.
The extended building is a large-scale vertical garden on the third floor, claimed to be the largest public living wall of native plants in San Francisco; A free ground-floor gallery overlooking Howard Street, with 25-foot (7.6 m) high glass walls, places the art within sight of passers-by; a double-height “white box” area on the fourth floor with sophisticated lighting and sound systems; and state-of-the-art conservation studios on the seventh and eighth floors. The expansion facades are clad in lightweight panels made of Fiber Reinforced Plastic; When completed, it was the largest application of composite technology to architecture in the United States at the time.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Interior
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Notable Works
Intermission by Edward Hopper
A Set of Six Self-Portraits by Andy Warhol
The Flower Carrier by Diego Rivera
Frieda and Diego Rivera by Frida Kahlo
Collection (formerly Untitled) by Robert Rauschenberg
1947-S by Clyfford Still
Ocean Park #54 by Richard Diebenkorn
Untitled, Memphis by William Eggleston
Video Quartet by Christian Marclay
Honey-pop by Tokujin Yoshioka
Where is San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, How to Get There, Directions, Visiting Hours, Entrance Fee
Monday: 10:00-17:00
Tuesday + Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 13:00-20:00
Fri-Sun: 10:00-17:00
Visitor entrance is at 151 Third Street in San Francisco’s vibrant SoMA neighborhood. Yerba Buena Gardens is close to hotels, restaurants and public transport, and parking garage is next to the museum.
It is located close to the Powell Street and Montgomery Street BART and SF Muni Light Rail stations. You can enter the museum from Third Avenue between Mission and Howard.