BAM/PFA selects Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design new building

BERKELEY — Following a national search, the University of California, Berkeley, has chosen the world renowned, New York City-based design firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) to design the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA). The new museum complex is targeted for completion by late 2014. The announcement comes one day after BAM/PFA's board of trustees endorsed the recommendation of DS+R from a field of 10 national firms by a BAM/PFA architect selection committee consisting of campus, museum and community representatives. DS+R will develop plans to repurpose a 48,000-square-foot, art deco style printing plant and to integrate it with a new 50,000-square-foot structure on a site along Oxford Street, between Center and Addison streets in downtown Berkeley. The new museum site will anchor Berkeley's Addison Street Arts District and will link the campus and the active downtown arts and commerce districts. Just a block from the Downtown Berkeley BART station and across the street from the central campus, the new museum’s location will increase public accessibility to BAM/PFA's events, activities and collections, including more than 16,000 works of art and 14,000 films and videos. "Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s commitment to integrating architecture with contemporary culture and civic life perfectly aligns with BAM/PFA's core mission: to ignite critical dialog and inspire the imagination through art and film," said Lawrence Rinder, director of BAM/PFA.