Work has begun at the future site of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) building on the University of California Berkeley’s campus, Berkeleyside reports, with the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed museum slated to open on the site of the university’s former printing factory in 2016.
To date the institution has raised $95 million of the project’s $100 million price tag. It has been plotting a move from its longtime home, built in 1970, since 1997.
“This is an incredible milestone for this campaign, now a full decade in the making,” said BAM/PFA director Lawrence Rinder in a statement quoted by Berkleyside. “We will be forever grateful to all of those individuals who have offered commitments to the campaign, not to mention the campus and Berkeley communities who have given their overwhelming support and goodwill to the project.”
Rather than creating the museum building from scratch, the project calls for a new structure wrapped over the top of the 1930s printing plant on the corner of Center and Oxford streets. “The arts are a critical part of civil society and education and this new building will ensure that UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley have a world class visual arts center befitting these communities for at least the next century,” philanthropist, Cal alum, and BAM/PFA boardmember Barclay Simpson said in a statement.
The first phase of construction is taking place inside the former printing plant, with more visible work on the exterior slated to begin in the spring. The building should be completed by the summer of 2015, in time for its projected opening early in 2016.
— Benjamin Sutton