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The de Young in the 21st Century: A Museum by Herzog & de Meuron
9/22/2005 Forthcoming from Thames & Hudson, September 2005
By Diana Ketcham
With Aaron Betsky, Michael R. Corbett, Mitchell Schwarzer, and an interview with Jacques Herzog
“The masterpiece of its designers Herzog & de Meuron, San Francisco’s new de Young is the finest work of museum architecture since Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao.”
-- Martin Filler
A fascinating architectural study in museum design and urban planning
Designed by the internationally renowned Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron, winners of the 2001 Pritzker Prize, the new de Young in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is a stunning architectural tour de force, opening on October 15, 2005. The largest museum in San Francisco, the de Young is significant as Herzog & de Meuron's first major building in North America and the first museum the architects have designed from the ground up. This book documents the complex sixteen-year process that resulted in an outstanding contribution to contemporary museum architecture.
After the de Young was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the museum's fate—and the decision to replace the old building with a new museum on the same site in Golden Gate Park -- became the focus of intense public debate that continued for sixteen years. How Herzog & de Meuron, in cooperation with the San Francisco firm of Fong & Chan Architects and Oakland-based landscape designer Walter Hood, responded to the challenge of creating a building in harmony with its park setting is an important theme of the story. It is a fascinating case study in cultural and urban politics in San Francisco, with application to other cities.
Lavishly illustrated with 200 color photographs as well as plans, drawings, and models, the book traces the architects' creative process in striking detail. Included are interviews with the architects, landscape architect, and engineers. The largest copper-clad building in the world, the museum is sheathed entirely in a skin of dimpled and perforated, naturally oxidized copper panels, whose abstract pattern was distilled from manipulated photographs of the park's tree canopy. With its elegant, twisting tower rising above the tree line, providing visitors with dramatic views, the de Young is a superlative work of architecture.
Founded in 1895 by San Francisco Chronicle publisher Michael de Young, the museum originated in the Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 and grew to become the city's primary public art museum. Its superb permanent collection includes the art of Africa, Oceania, and traditional cultures of the Americas; American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; contemporary art; and textiles.
About the Authors
Diana Ketcham is executive editor of Arion Press and a recipient of the Berlin Prize in Architecture (The American Academy in Berlin). She is the author of The Desert de Retz and writes on architecture for The Nation and The New York Times.
Aaron Betsky is director of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, former curator of architecture and design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the author of False Flat: Why Dutch Design is so Good, Landscrapers: Building with the Land, and Architecture Must Burn, among other books.
Michael R. Corbett is a San Francisco Bay Area architectural historian and the author of Splendid Survivor: Downtown San Francisco’s Architectural Heritage.
Mitchell Schwarzer is professor of architectural history and chair of the department of visual studies at the California College of the Arts. Among his books are Zoomscape: Architecture in Motion and Media and German Architectural Theory.
With 200 illustrations, 191 in color
10 1/8 x 11 1/4"
$60.00 hardcover (0–88401–114–3)
$29.95 softcover (0–88401–115–1)
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