Michael Macor / The Chronicle - Kent Chiang and Roslyn Cole of Aidlin Darling Design have a look at the 30,000-square-foot space to be the future Emeryville Center for the Arts.
“Welcome to the Emeryville Center for the Arts,” David Meckel told the architects sitting on folding chairs in a long building with concrete floors, brick walls and dim natural light. “We need your help finishing it off, but we’re close.”
From 1963 until 2006 this structure housed the United Stamping Co., a fabricator that produced such trinkets as the accelerator pedal for infantry transport vehicles. Now it’s a dusty shell – and the prize in what may prove to be the Bay Area’s most intriguing architectural competition in memory.
That’s no easy task, given recent high-profile showdowns held by the Berkeley Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. But the Emeryville competition is confined to emerging local architects. It also has the blessing of powers-that-be at City Hall – an embrace of the unknown that other municipalities would do well to emulate.
The six firms in the running were selected on criteria that includes having worked at roughly the scale of the center, which has a $12 million budget. They also need experience in arts-related design but – to keep things fresh – the firm’s leader cannot be a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
“I thought about putting in an age limit, but that sort of thing’s not allowed,” joked Meckel, the center’s adviser on what is billed officially as an “architect selection process.” Read More (via SF Gate)
