A design museum in Marin is a step closer. The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, the nonprofit founded by the family of designers Charles and Ray Eames, has released a master plan and new renderings for the former Birkenstock campus in Novato.
The site
SFist reports that the institute bought the property along Highway 101 last summer for $36 million. It includes a 1964 warehouse and about 88.5 acres. John Savage Bolles, the architect of Candlestick Park, designed the warehouse. It was built as a distribution center for publisher McGraw Hill. Birkenstock moved in in 1992. The warehouse sat empty after the company moved its distribution hub to Kentucky, and Birkenstock left the property entirely in 2020.
The plan
The institute hired Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss firm that designed the de Young Museum. Landscape firm Field Operations, known for the Presidio Tunnel Tops and New York's High Line, is also on the project. Artnet reports that the master plan would turn the warehouse into a 185,000-square-foot arts venue. It would have a main hall, six connected galleries, workshop spaces, a theater and dining. An adjacent office building would become a gathering space.
SFist says the plans include an entry courtyard carved into the landscape and a 48,000-square-foot Great Hall. The institute calls the hall "one of the largest single-span spaces for art installations in the country." The redesign would expose the building's undulating concrete ceiling.
What's next
The plans were submitted to the city of Novato on Tuesday, SFist reports, and the institute has launched a capital campaign. Artnet says the institute expects about 200,000 visitors a year. The Eames Archive collection, now in Richmond, would move to the new site.