Building Design | Exhibition Space | Program Space | Architects

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco—holding nearly 17,000 Asian art treasures spanning 6,000 years of history—is one of the largest museums in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian art. Once located in Golden Gate Park, the museum opened its new, expanded facility at Civic Center on March 20, 2003. An architectural gem featuring a dynamic blend of beaux arts and modern design elements, the museum’s new home is the result of a dramatic rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of San Francisco’s former main library building by renowned architect Gae Aulenti (designer of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris). The new building serves as a showcase for the museum’s acclaimed collection and exhibitions, and allows the museum to better demonstrate its long-term commitment to preserving, protecting and promoting Asian art and culture.

The museum facility is approximately 165,000 net square feet, an increase of approximately 75 percent compared to the museum's former location in Golden Gate Park. The Asian Art Museum is located on Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall and bordered by Larkin, McAllister, Hyde and Fulton streets.

Building Design

Gae Aulenti's design revitalizes the famous 1917 structure by creating a new heart for the building while respecting its historic elements and framework. An indoor sky-lit court, incorporating the prominent entrance and grand staircase, provides a dramatic focus for the new museum's central space. Reworked interior walls allow views into galleries, creating a sense of openness and orientation as visitors circulate through, above and around the court. The rehabilitation leaves the Beaux Arts exterior essentially unchanged, while the conceptual design retains the historically significant architectural spaces and details of the interior, including the entrance, grand staircase, loggia and great hall, vaulted ceilings, skylights, inscriptions, molded plasters, light fixtures and stone floors, and other elements.

Exhibition Space

At the new museum 29,000 square feet of gallery space — enhanced with state-of-the-art interpretive displays and programs — houses nearly 2,500 objects from the museum's world-renowned collection, offering visitors a comprehensive introduction to all of the major cultures of Asia. Museum curators worked in collaboration with George Sexton, an award-winning independent gallery designer, to determine the best way to display the objects beautifully and dramatically with effective supporting text for all levels of understanding. Furthermore, another 8500 square feet of gallery space on the museum's ground floor is dedicated to temporary exhibitions.

Gallery Floorplan (Acrobat PDF)

Program Space

The museum features 3 multi-purpose classrooms to support the wide range of educational and cultural programs for which the Asian Art Museum is widely regarded. Samsung Hall, located at the center of the building, is also used to showcase live demonstrations, hands-on art activities, and self-paced learning activities that allow visitors to gain a greater appreciation of Asian art and culture.

Architects

The joint venture of Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK), LDA Architects and Robert Wong Architect in association with Gae Aulenti, FAIA, oversaw the design of the Asian Art Museum. One of the most sought-after museum designers in the world, Dott. Aulenti specializes in the adaptive reuse of historic structures to museum spaces (Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Palazzo Grassi, Venice; Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona). HOK, an international design firm with offices worldwide, brought substantial experience in historic rehabilitation to the project. The joint venture LEM/DPR served as the construction manager for the project.