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# New SFMOMA Building Kind of Looks Like a Glacier
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/sf-moma-building-design/
- Published: 2011-05-26T17:40:07.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:37:36.000Z
- Description: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art just unveiled the designs for their new building, and it looks like ... a granite glacier fit into a skinny city block? Developed by Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, the expansion will add over 225,000 square feet the the museum.
- Author: Kyle Chayka
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Architecture, California, San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Snøhetta, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/05/sfmomadesign_top.jpg)

SF MoMA expansion, nighttime aerial view (all images courtesy of Snøhetta)

The [San Francisco Museum of Modern Art](http://www.sfmoma.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) just unveiled the designs for their new building, and it looks like … a granite glacier fit into a skinny city block? Developed by Norwegian architectural firm [Snøhetta](http://www.snoarc.no/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the expansion will add over 225,000 square feet to the museum.

Maybe the building’s aesthetic isn’t particularly surprising given Snøhetta’s Nordic origins and awesome name — the word refers to a Norwegian mountaintop. Sitting behind SFMOMA’s funky original building with its sky-facing striped oculus, the new building is a muscular, monumental presence that fits more cleanly into the city block, as aerial views show.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/05/sfmomanefacade.jpg)

SFMOMA expansion, northeast facade 

Despite its imposing presence, the building’s footprint also leaves room for a human presence: “The new building does not push tightly against its property lines; instead it creates new public spaces and pedestrian routes through the neighborhood along with open views of the surrounding streetscape,” writes Snøhetta architect Craig Dykers in a press release.

Christopher Hawthorne of the *LA Times* [writes that the new design](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2011/05/first-look-at-sfmomas-new-wing.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) has a “flinty personality,” perhaps most visible in the building’s rock-like textured skin shown off in the renderings (seen above). Still, the critic cautions, these designs are by no means finalized.

SFMOMA has raised more than $250 million toward a projected $480 million campaign goal for the expansion, including $100 million for the museum’s endowment. While we’re waiting for funds to be raised and ground to be broken, let’s all salivate over the images of what will be.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/05/sfmomahowardstreet.jpg)

SFMOMA expansion, Howard Street view

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/05/sfmomasketch.jpg)

SFMOMA expansion, sketch of northeast facade