Having dropped Japanese starchitect Toyo Ito and its plans for a dramatic new building, the Berkeley Art Museum has settled on Plan B: take over, rather than demolish, the 1939 printing plant that sits at their planned site at the corner of Center and Oxford streets. The new plan, says The Architect's Newspaper, will involve an addition to the building (adjacent, not on top) that would double its square footage. The plant was designed by Masten & Hurd as a WPA project, which museum director Laurence Rinder is selling as "another great part of the story." Not too shabby a consolation-prize story anyway. EHDD Architecture, who was going to be the architect of record for the Ito design, is sticking around for this new plan, though it hasn't been decided yet whether another architect might be hired to "do something distinctive" for the addition. The museum board should be voting on Plan Printing Plant in mid-February.
· Berkeley's Moderne Art Museum [Arch Paper]
· Berkeley Art Museum Ditches Japanese Starchitect's Design [Curbed SF]
· The Man Behind Berkeley Art Museum's Gleefully Curvy Walls [Curbed SF]
· CurbedWire: Toyo Ito's Berkeley Art Museum Plans Revealed [Curbed SF]
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