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The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) occupies an 83,000-square-foot downtown Berkeley building that pairs a preserved 1939 printing plant with a new, curving stainless-steel-clad addition. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the facility opened on January 31, 2016, after the museum’s former Bancroft Way home was found seismically unsafe.
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A museum made from two very different buildings
BAMPFA is not a conventional new-build museum. Its defining architectural decision was to keep a substantial piece of Berkeley’s industrial fabric and make it work alongside a newly constructed volume. The project combines a 48,000-square-foot former printing plant with 35,000 square feet of new construction, creating an 83,000-square-foot home for exhibitions, film, study, performance and public life.
Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the project, while EHDD served as architect of record, as identified in BAMPFA’s 2011 project announcement. The completed building sits at the edge of the University of California, Berkeley campus and downtown Berkeley, giving the institution a civic address rather than isolating it inside a campus quadrangle.
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The old and new parts remain legible. Visitors can read the retained printing plant as a broad, disciplined industrial structure, while the addition announces itself through a more fluid outline and reflective stainless-steel skin. The contrast is intentional: one half supplies memory, daylight and usable floor area; the other supplies new circulation, theaters and a sculptural public presence.
Why BAMPFA needed a new home
BAMPFA’s earlier building on Bancroft Way was declared seismically unsafe in 1997. A University of California, Berkeley report found that it did not meet the earthquake-safety standards then in force. BAMPFA’s institutional history adds a practical problem: bringing the building up to standard would have required sacrificing exhibition space.
That combination made a straightforward renovation unattractive. The museum needed a safer structure without shrinking the galleries that supported its art program, and it also needed a facility capable of accommodating the Pacific Film Archive’s screenings and film-related activities. Planning and fundraising for a new building followed. The eventual site, between campus and downtown, allowed the museum to address both audiences.
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The new facility opened to the public on January 31, 2016. Berkeley News reported nearly 12,500 visitors on opening day. That number describes the launch event only; it is not an annual attendance figure or a measure of present-day visitation.
The adaptive-reuse strategy, step by step
1. Retain the 1939 printing plant
BAMPFA describes the reused structure as a 1939 Art Deco-style printing plant. Rather than demolishing it, the design team kept its principal volume and distinctive north-facing sawtooth roof. The decision preserved a recognizable piece of the site’s working history while providing a large, robust shell for galleries and other museum functions.
2. Add a curving new structure
A 35,000-square-foot addition extends the project with a curvilinear form clad in stainless steel. Its smooth exterior differs from the printing plant’s more rectilinear profile, but the addition also carries forward aspects of the older building’s streamlined Deco character. The result is a deliberate conversation between industrial regularity and contemporary movement, not an attempt to make the old building disappear.
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3. Join the parts into one public institution
The two structures are planned as one museum and film center. Galleries, theaters, study spaces and public rooms are distributed across the combined 83,000 square feet, so the building can support an exhibition in one area, a screening in another and informal gathering elsewhere at the same time.
What the sawtooth roof does for the galleries
The retained roof is more than a historic detail. Its north-facing sawtooth profile brings filtered natural light into many ground-floor galleries. North light is prized in gallery design because it can be relatively even and less exposed to the harsh direct sun that complicates conservation and viewing. In BAMPFA’s case, the roof turns an inherited industrial feature into an environmental and curatorial asset.
That daylight also changes how the reused building feels. Instead of treating the printing plant as a sealed container for white-box rooms, the project allows visitors to remain aware of the roof’s rhythm and the building’s original scale. The effect is not simply nostalgic: the roof helps make the galleries distinct from the more enclosed, technologically controlled spaces required for film projection and other programs.
How the stainless-steel addition changes the experience
The new volume is the project’s most visibly sculptural element. Its curving geometry and stainless-steel cladding catch changing daylight, weather and movement around the downtown site. Where the printing plant reads as a stable horizontal bar, the addition reads as an active edge that guides people toward the museum and marks the institution from the surrounding streets.
Stainless steel also gives the addition a precise, contemporary surface without severing its relationship to the old structure. BAMPFA’s description connects the new form to the printing plant’s streamlined Art Deco language; the connection is made through proportion and sweep rather than by copying historic ornament.
The architectural contrast supports wayfinding. Visitors can understand that they are moving between different kinds of rooms: the calmer, daylit exhibition areas associated with the retained plant and the more enclosed or performance-oriented spaces accommodated by the addition. The building’s identity comes from that sequence, not from a single façade viewed in isolation.
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Program and capacity at a glance
The published figures below come from BAMPFA’s 2015 opening announcement. They describe the building’s planned and completed program, not temporary exhibition layouts.
| Element | Published figure or description | Architectural role |
|---|---|---|
| Former printing plant | 48,000 square feet | Retained 1939 Art Deco-style structure with the north-facing sawtooth roof |
| New construction | 35,000 square feet | Curving stainless-steel-clad addition |
| Total facility | 83,000 square feet | Combined museum, archive, screening and public complex |
| Gallery space | 25,000 square feet | Exhibition areas, including many galleries receiving filtered roof light |
| Large film theater | 232 seats | Screenings and film-program events |
| Small film theater | 33 seats | More intimate screenings and presentations |
| Other spaces | Performance forum, cafe, four study centers for art and film, reading room and art-making lab | Learning, research, making, gathering and performance |
| Outdoor feature | LED screen and viewing plaza | Public-facing media and event space outside the building |
Why a film archive changes museum architecture
BAMPFA joins two institutions that are often housed separately: an art museum and a film archive. The Pacific Film Archive began as a film program within the museum and became integrated into the institution’s exhibitions and collection activity. That history helps explain why the building gives film more than a single multipurpose room. It provides two dedicated theaters, with capacities of 232 and 33, alongside galleries and study facilities.
Film requires conditions that differ from those of a daylight gallery. Projection, acoustic control, darkness and audience sightlines all favor enclosed rooms, while paintings and other objects can benefit from carefully managed ambient light and flexible wall surfaces. BAMPFA’s split program lets each medium have an appropriate environment while keeping both under one institutional roof.
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The institution behind the building
BAMPFA traces its origins to 1881. The Pacific Film Archive’s development inside the museum eventually shaped the institution’s combined identity, and the name changed to the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1996.
On its current about page, accessed October 13, 2026, BAMPFA reports more than 25,000 artworks and 18,000 films and videos. The institution identifies modern and contemporary art and historical Chinese painting as collection strengths. It also describes its African American quilt collection as the world’s largest. These are BAMPFA’s own current descriptions and counts, so they should be understood as institution-reported figures that can change as collections and cataloguing develop.
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The building’s mixed program is therefore a response to a real institutional structure, not an architectural gimmick. The galleries serve a large and varied art collection; the theaters and study areas serve the film archive; and the public rooms connect both to Berkeley’s campus and downtown communities.
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Retained structure versus new addition
The printing plant carries the project’s material memory. Keeping 48,000 square feet of it makes adaptive reuse the dominant fact of the design. The addition is not a replacement shell disguised as preservation; 35,000 square feet of new work is visibly and spatially distinct.
Filtered daylight versus controlled darkness
The sawtooth roof brings filtered north light to many ground-floor galleries. The film theaters, by contrast, need darkness and controlled projection conditions. BAMPFA makes those opposing environmental requirements coexist instead of forcing every program into one generic room type.
Industrial discipline versus sculptural movement
The former plant’s regularity gives the museum a strong baseline. The stainless-steel-clad curve introduces movement and a changing visual surface. Together they make the building understandable from a distance and rewarding to read up close.
Collection display versus public encounter
Twenty-five thousand square feet of galleries provide the principal exhibition capacity, but the building also includes a cafe, performance forum, reading room, study centers, art-making lab, LED screen and plaza. Those spaces make the museum more than a sequence of rooms for looking at objects; they support lingering, learning and collective events.
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What visitors can expect from the layout
A first-time visitor should think of BAMPFA as a campus-and-downtown threshold building rather than a sealed gallery block. The public-facing spaces are arranged to welcome people who may arrive for a film, an exhibition, a class, a performance or simply a place to gather. The outdoor LED screen and viewing plaza extend that invitation beyond the entrance.
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Inside, the program’s variety means that the atmosphere can change quickly. A daylit gallery under the retained roof has a different visual register from a dark theater; a study center has a different pace from the performance forum or cafe. That variation is one of the project’s central achievements because it reflects how BAMPFA actually operates.
Specific opening hours, ticket rules and current exhibition arrangements are not fixed architectural facts and should be checked with BAMPFA before a visit. The building’s published capacities and areas, however, explain why it can host art, film and public programs concurrently.
Timeline of the project and institution
- 1881: The institution traces its origins to this year.
- 1996: The museum adopts the name University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
- 1997: The former Bancroft Way building is declared seismically unsafe; an upgrade would have reduced exhibition space.
- 2011: BAMPFA announces the new project, with Diller Scofidio + Renfro selected as designer and EHDD as architect of record.
- January 31, 2016: The downtown Berkeley facility opens.
- Opening day, 2016: Berkeley News reports nearly 12,500 visitors, a historical launch figure rather than an ongoing attendance statistic.
- October 13, 2026: BAMPFA’s about page reports more than 25,000 artworks and 18,000 films and videos.
Why the project matters in architectural terms
BAMPFA demonstrates that adaptive reuse can be the organizing idea of a major cultural building rather than a concession made to preserve a façade. The retained printing plant contributes most of the floor area, supplies the roof that shapes gallery daylight and keeps the site’s industrial history visible. The new addition then supplies the formal and technical capabilities that the older structure could not provide on its own.
The project also shows why museum architecture cannot be evaluated only by its exterior image. Its success depends on how the roof handles light, how the theaters handle film, how study and making spaces support the collections, and how the public rooms connect campus life with downtown activity. Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s design makes those relationships legible through the old-and-new composition.
Lawrence Rinder, BAMPFA’s director, described the project in the 2015 announcement as combining “serene spaces for viewing film and art with dynamic public areas.” Charles Renfro, a partner at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, said BAMPFA would become “a new social and cultural hub for the entire region.” The completed program gives those statements a concrete architectural basis: galleries and theaters are paired with rooms and outdoor spaces intended for gathering, study and participation.
The concise verdict
BAMPFA is best understood as a carefully joined pair: a preserved 1939 printing plant that provides history and filtered daylight, and a curving stainless-steel addition that provides new public and cinematic infrastructure. The 83,000-square-foot result does not choose between preservation and contemporary design. It uses both to house an art museum, a film archive and the public life that connects them.
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