Due to open 20 March is the new San Francisco Asian Art Museum, inside the ex main city library – a beaux arts building designed in 1917 by Gorge Kelham located in Civic Center Plaza – totally redesigned by Italian architect Gae Aulenti, together with two American practices Hok (Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum) and LDA Architects, and Chinese architect Robert Wong.
First opened in 1966, the building in Golden Gate Park had become small to hold the immense collection – over 14,000 works of art from all over Asia (“an important legacy for a city where over a third of the population is from the east and for whom the museum is a kind of second home” points out Aulenti).
The new museum which has cost 160 million dollars, contains 10,000 square metres of gallery space for new works of art, spread over the second and third floors and 3,000 square metres for temporary exhibitions at ground floor level. The hand of the architect is particularly visible in the large glass covered piazza.
Asian Art Museum 200 Larkin Street (Civic Center Plaza) T +1-415-5813500 http://www.asianart.org
