San Francisco has a Mexican Museum. Thought we'd start there, just in case you weren't aware of or haven't visited the center for Latino culture, which is currently secreted away in the mindfuck of urban planning that is the greater Fort Mason/ Presidio area. (The museo is housed in Fort Mason Center, building D— and it's been shuttered for two years.) Not for (too) long though: Millennium Partners and JMA Ventures, have struck a deal with the city's Redevelopment Agency, and are planning a to build a new Mexican Museum at the base of a 220-unit condominium tower at 706 Mission Street, between third and fourth streets; the new International Museum of Women may also be housed in the 35,000 to 40,000 square-foot space. It's been a long haul to glory: Thirteen years ago, the museum rolled out plans for a new brick building (pictured here), designed by one of Mexico's most lauded architects, Ricardo Legorreta, and slated for construction on Jesse Square. One dot-com bust, a failed capital campaign and a few other snags later, the project became a near pipe dream as its board played a game of musical chairs while the staff dwindled away. Backed up by an arts community intent on saving an exemplary collection of Mexican art, the museum will finally have a space to store the thousands of works now locked in storage at Fort Mason. Enrique Norton and Glenn Rescalvo of Handel Architects are on board to re-design the building, whose height is TBD; as per original plans, the tower will stand atop the Mercantile Building.
· Millennium Partners, JMA Venturs tapped for tower [SF Business Times]
· See also: Mexican Museum still searching for a home [SF Gate]
[Original design (repeat: original, not current design) for the Mexican Museum by the project's initial architect, Ricardo Legorreta who is, incidentally, reportedly peeved that his project has be stalled for years. Courtesy SF Gate.]