BERKELEY ART MUSEUM TO RELOCATE TO DOWNTOWN

The Daily Californian reports that leaders from the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive have decided to relocate the museum to the former UC printing plant after a plan to build a completely new museum was deemed too expensive.

The museum has been set to move to a new downtown location since 1999, when the current building located on Bancroft Way and College Avenue was determined to be seismically unsafe.

Museum officials opted to scrap a plan to build a new museum designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito after the plan’s estimated $145 million cost was deemed too expensive. Lawrence Rinder, director of the museum, said, “I think that our institution at a site in downtown Berkeley, about half a block from BART on a street that sees foot traffic at about ten thousand [people] a day, will be a profoundly exciting and dynamic part of the city and the UC system.”