Manetti Shrem Museum of Art Building UC Davis, University of California Building, Sacramento Architecture

Manetti Shrem Museum of Art Building, UC Davis

Californian Gallery Building design by SO – IL / Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects, USA

Nov 8, 2016

Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Design: SO – IL / Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, architects

Location: Davis, California, USA

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson announces the Opening of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis

San Francisco, CA (November 7, 2016) – Associated architects SO – IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson announce the opening of their collaborative design effort at UC Davis, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, which opens its doors to the public on November 13. In keeping with the free-thinking, experimental legacy of the UC Davis School of Art, the light-filled, multiuse building is designed to further the educational mission of the museum.

Photos: Iwan Baan/ SO – IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson

As a new focal point and destination for the entire community, the Manetti Shrem completes UC Davis’ vision for an arts district on the south side of campus, complementing the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. It will be home to rotating collections of works, classes, studios and shared communal spaces, all housed under its defining architectural feature, a 50,000-square-foot floating ‘Grand Canopy’ of perforated aluminum triangular beams.

Under the canopy, events are generated by movement of the sun and changing seasons, producing a tapestry of shadows and constantly mutable silhouettes as visitors move through the public plaza. Lines from the site and its surroundings carry through to help shape the courtyard’s design. Beyond serving as a gateway to the museum lobby, this outdoor space will provide opportunities for interactive learning, open-air exhibitions, and performance; two exterior projection walls will also display digital works and film.

Inside the single-story 30,000-square-foot building is a portfolio of interconnected spaces, all with distinct spatial qualities and characteristics that trigger diverse activities. Gallery, education and operations pavilions are visibly connected via lightly polished concrete floors. Ceilings are custom aluminum mesh fitted with state-of-the-art occupant-controlled LED lighting, which enables effective illumination of a variety of media within close adjacency and accommodates natural light delivered by visible connections to the outside.

“The museum’s design was inspired by the agrarian landscape of the Central Valley, which is rich in pattern, texture and color,” says Karl Backus, design principal from Bohlin Cywinski Jackson’s San Francisco office. “We incorporated these elements into the program of the building as a way to create smaller volumes and provide an approachable, human scale.”

What makes this project especially unique is the method in which it was designed and constructed. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and SO – IL, chosen from a design competition in 2013, were partnered with nationally recognized construction company Whiting-Turner. Through a design-build project delivery method, uncommon in museum design, the team has created a building that redefines the concept of a university museum and the manner in which the campus community will experience art.

This winter’s inaugural exhibition will unveil gifts to the collection and feature major public and private loans in order to examine the role of UC Davis as the progenitor of some of the most important art to emerge from the West Coast in the late 20th century. Artists Wayne Thiebaud, William T. Wiley, Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, Ruth Horsting, Manuel Neri and Roland Petersen are among those who will be represented.

About the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art
Grounded in the legacy of UC Davis’ world-renowned first generation art faculty, the Manetti Shrem Museum will be a hub of creative practice for today’s thinkers, makers and innovators, now and for generations to come. The new museum is named in honor of Jan Shrem, the founder of Clos Pegase winery in the Napa Valley, and his wife, arts patron Maria Manetti Shrem.

About Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, founded in 1965, is a national architecture practice noted for elegant and humane design, ranging from modest houses to large academic, civic, cultural and corporate buildings. To date, the firm has received more than 650 regional, national and international awards for design, including three AIA Top Ten Green Project Awards and the AIA Architecture Firm Award.

The firm is well known for its work with Apple, designing stores such as the iconic Fifth Avenue cube in New York City and flagship stores worldwide, as well as colleges and universities across the country, including Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Caltech, University of Illinois, and Williams College. For more information, please visit BCJ.com.

About SO – IL
SO – IL, founded by Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, and led in partnership with Ilias Papageorgiou, is a 20-person architectural design practice that envisions spaces for art, learning and innovation. Well known for the Kukje Gallery in Seoul, Korea, and the Frieze Art Fair in Manhattan, the firm is celebrated as a new voice within the field. For more information, please visit SO-IL.org.

About Whiting-Turner
Whiting-Turner, founded in 1909, is one of the nation’s leading construction management firms. It is currently constructing the Burton and Deedee McMurtry Building for art and art history at Stanford University. For more information, please visit Whiting-Turner.com.