Glenn Robert Lym Architect AIA/PhD

The opposition of two new museums in Golden Gate Park

By 2000 local, national, and world wide architectural commentators were taking note of San Francisco because it was in the midst of building important buildings designed by world class architects from outside the Bay Area.  By 2008, two of these buildings were completed - the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Science, located opposite each other in Golden Gate Park.

The de Young is dark and seemingly impenetrable.  It was designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron.  And the Academy of Sciences is light, airy and inviting.  It was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano.

To me, the most interesting aspects of these buildings is not how they raise the bar for design in an architecturally parochial San Francisco.  Rather, what interests me is how both buildings are fundamental opposites of each other and embrace as well as ignore the park in completely different ways.

In HERE1, we ask what are the architectural "moves" that underlie each building?  Why did each museum choose to build as they did?

HERE1 is 27 minutes long.  It was written, filmed and edited by Glenn Lym in the Spring through Fall of 2009.

You can download a full verson of HERE1- The De Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences directly within iTunes and subscribe to future episodes of HERE for free by clicking on the iTunes button below.

You can also view HERE1 on YouTube.  Due to its length and YouTube's file size and duration restrictions, HERE1 on YouTube consists of 3 separate, lower quality videos.