"You have an idea. Then you're confronted by reality and adapt to it."

by John King

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is about to begin its biggest installation since moving to Third Street: a sculpture garden perched atop a parking garage.
The project has been in the works since 2006, when architect Mark Jensen's design was selected from a strong field of six local entries. But what with fundraising, permits and fine-tuning, the physical work is getting under way only now.

Next month, demolition begins as holes are punched in the fifth-floor wall on the east side of the Mario Botta-designed museum. If all goes well, by December patrons will be able to visit the finished product, rain or shine.

Jensen's design is understated: An enclosed bridge along the Minna Street face of SFMOMA will lead down five feet to what is now the walled-in top floor of a garage built by the museum in 1999. There'll be a glassed-in pavilion with walls that slide back when weather permits, a long window that allows views into (and out from) the fifth-floor gallery, and three gingko trees carefully spaced to break up the 11,400-square-foot space.

Not that understated means bland. No detail is left to chance. The ceiling of the pavilion will be luminous fabric, while the garden walls are a spongelike black lava from Indonesia. As for the entry bridge, it's supported by girders above; you should feel as if you were on a catwalk. The final design hews closely to the one selected in May 2006, but not everything's the same. For instance, the pavilion originally had a translucent glass roof (on the plus side, the roof will be covered in solar panels). As for the walls bathed in soft lichen - an "incremental and heroic" fungus, according to Jensen's competition text - change that to Boston ivy on two sides.

"We wanted the feeling to be a little more lush, a green space," Jensen said. Also, growing lichen is chancy at best. And there's the difference between a competition and a job, according to Jensen: "You have an idea. Then you're confronted by reality and adapt to it."

This article originaly appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle


About Jensen Macy Architects
www.jensen-macy.com

Jensen & Macy Architects is an award winning architecture and interiors firm based in San Francisco. Founded in 1994 by Mark Jensen and Mark Macy, the practice currently has projects across the United States and Europe. Cultivating a diverse client base has resulting in extensive experience with retail, commercial, and residential projects. This specialized experience gained within each project type has informed J&M's work on all their projects.

Jensen & Macy offer complete and comprehensive services from schematic design through construction administration. Their extensive knowledge of construction methods and materials provides a unique technical proficiency that allows them to design solutions that are at once elegant and cost effective. They have developed close working relationships with graphic designers, landscape architects, engineers, and artists in the conceptualization of projects. In their intimate involvement with the construction process, they have also developed with contractors, manufacturers, fabricators, cabinetmakers, and specialized artisans.

J&M work closely with each client to thoroughly understand their needs and to develop solutions that are unique, appropriate, and poetic responses to the constraints and opportunities of the project. In all projects, extreme care is taken to conceptualize comprehensively from the general to the particular so that the end effect conveyed is one of thorough and thoughtful consideration.

Mark Jensen received a Bachelor of Architecture from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo in 1986 and furthered his studies in Florence, Italy. He continued his stay in Italy working in architectural studios and for the noted Italian fashion designer Enrico Coveri. Upon his return to San Francisco he worked as a Project Architect in the award-winning firms of Jim Jennings and Mark Mack. He is an Adjunct Professor at the California College of the Arts (CCA) where he has taught since 1991. He was Chair of the Interior Architecture Department at CCA from 1994-1998.

Mark Macy received a Bachelor of Architecture from the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo in 1985. He went on to study in Florence, subsequently working for the noted Italian architect Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (Superstudio). He returned to California and worked nine years for the award winning firm of Fernau & Hartman in Berkeley, eventually becoming their Senior Project Architect. In 1994, he co-founded ARC Manufacturing Company, which makes a unique low-voltage lighting system. He has taught courses in architectural design at the California State University International Program in Florence and Kent State University's program in Sesto Fiorentino and has held Lecturer status at the California College of the Arts since 1994.