De Young Memorial Museum

Herzog & de Meuron – San Francisco, California, USA, 2005

The M. H. de Young Memorial Museum is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco (USA). The museum houses works of American, African, Eastern and pre-Columbian civilization art. Periodically it hosts temporary exhibitions of great interest.

The current site of the museum is a long, low building surrounded by the greenery of Golden Gate Park; it occupies an area of ​​over 27000 m² and consists of a central body dominated by an eight-storey tower with a slightly twisted shape.
The entire museum building, including the panoramic tower, is covered with oxidized copper panels, characterized by punctures and ashlarwork, which give the museum a strong personality. The use, with copper, of natural materials such as stone and glass create a connection between construction and the luxuriant surrounding natural environment offered by the park. The holes in the copper panels, partially recycled, intend to recreate a luminous effect similar to that of the sunlight that filters through the foliage of a forest. The 45-meter-high tower is publicly accessible and offers 360-degree views of the surrounding park and nearby residential neighborhoods of San Francisco.