Expansion Timeline

Project Milestones

February 2013

New details of building design reveal museum's broader vision for visitor experience and increasing role in city life, with more free-to-the-public space, expanded education programs for schoolchildren, more flexible galleries to accommodate live performances and large-scale works of art, and field-leading contributions to global standards of energy efficiency for art museums.
November 2012

SFMOMA announces new gifts to its ongoing Collections Campaign with more than 470 photographs from three separate collectors, adding significant new depth to the museum’s holdings in 20th-century American and Japanese photography. Artists represented include Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Daido Moriyama, Irving Penn, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Shōmei Tōmatsu, and Garry Winogrand, among others; gifts cement SFMOMA's standing as home to the largest collection of Japanese photography in the United States.
June 2012

SFMOMA announces plans for extensive off-site programming to take place during the approximately two-and-half year construction period between summer of 2013 and early 2016.

Projects to include collaborative exhibitions with a range of Bay Area museum partners, outdoor commissions, festivals, neighborhood-based initiatives, traveling exhibitions, and education and public programs.
February 2012

Public review and approvals process is completed, receiving unanimous votes.
November 2011

SFMOMA announces new capital campaign goal, increasing the scope of its expansion project from $480 million to $555 million, with nearly 80 percent of its capital campaign goal raised two years ahead of groundbreaking.

Snøhetta presents details of design and expanded building program. New sketches reveal innovative and audience-friendly design features, including free street-level galleries and public spaces, and dedicated educational spaces throughout the museum.
May 2011

SFMOMA unveils expansion conceptual designs.

Webcor is named the general contractor and joins the expansion project team.
February 2011

SFMOMA launches a multiyear Collections Campaign with 195 promised gifts from a committee of nine Bay Area collectors. Some of the artists represented include Diane Arbus, Joseph Beuys, Robert Gober, Eva Hesse, Ellsworth Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Jackson Pollock, Ed Ruscha, and David Smith.
September 2010

SFMOMA's Board of Trustees formally ratifies the selection of Snøhetta.

EHDD is named the local architect and joins the expansion project team.

The process of preparing a conceptual design begins.
July 2010

The architect selection committee recommends Snøhetta to collaborate with SFMOMA on the expansion.
May 2010

After examining the work of some 35 firms, the architect selection committee announces a short list of four firms — Adjaye Associates, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Foster + Partners, and Snøhetta — who are invited to present ideas on how they would approach the expansion project and meet SFMOMA's goals.

In the two months that follow, the search committee travels to the four firms' offices and visits relevant buildings to better understand how each practice might contribute to SFMOMA's vision.
February 2010

The partnership between SFMOMA and the Fisher family is formally ratified.

The museum announces challenge pledges totaling more than $250 million toward the projected $480 million campaign goal. This early challenge grant from museum leadership includes $100 million for the endowment — increasing it by 100 percent.

SFMOMA announces that it will partner with the city of San Francisco to relocate Fire Station 1 from its current location on Howard Street to a new, modern facility on Folsom Street, a significant gift from the museum to the community. In return, the city will turn over the existing firehouse and a small portion of Hunt Street behind it to SFMOMA.
Fall/Winter 2009

SFMOMA forms a committee to select the architect for the expansion.

SFMOMA works with the management consulting firm Bain & Company to complete a comprehensive business plan determining the operating expenses and related revenue and endowment requirements necessary to sustain an expanded program and facility.
September 2009

SFMOMA reaches a verbal agreement with the Fisher family to share the contemporary art collection of Gap founders Doris and Donald Fisher with the public.
April 2009

In response to dramatic growth in SFMOMA's programs, collections, and audiences, the museum announces plans to expand.