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Art camp at the Presidio?
Art in America, Feb, 2008 by Stephanie Cash
San Francisco's Presidio, an Army post from 1776 to 1994 and now a 1,491-acre national park, may soon become home to a contemporary art museum built by Gap founders Donald and Doris Fisher, who are major San Francisco-based collectors. Dubbed the Contemporary Art Museum at the Presidio (CAMP),the Richard Gluckman-designed project entails a new two-story, 100,000-square-foot glass building and renovation of an existing, empty brick barracks. The low-lying museum would feature a sculpture garden, cafe bookstore and public event space, as well as a parking garage. Though widely reported last August, the proposal must first be approved by the Presidio Trust, which involves undergoing an environmental impact review. If the plan passes muster, the Fishers would join the increasing ranks of private collectors who, instead of donating their holdings to public institutions, open their own museums.
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Some residents have already weighed in opposing the use of the prominent site at the top of the parade ground. Critics say the sleek architectural style is inappropriate amid the modest Mission-style structures. Donald Fisher, who served on the board of the Presidio Trust from 1997 to 2005 and so presumably has the inside track, has also offered to donate $10 million toward a $45-million project to "green" the parade ground. With only one competitor--the Presidio Historical Association's proposal to build a 48,000-square-foot history center devoted to the Presidio and the American West--the Fisher proposal seems to be a shoo-in. According to a spokesperson, however, the Trust would like to accommodate both proposals within the Presidio, though only one could occupy the parade ground site. A decision is expected early this year.
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Highly regarded in art circles, me Fishers collection of some 1,000 works includes examples dating from 1928 to the present, by such artists as Alexander Calder, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Richard Serra, Anselm Kiefen Gerhard Richter, Chuck Close, Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt, Cy Twombly, Richard Long and Antony Gormley. Sequestered in the Gap offices, it has been accessible to few outsiders, though works are sometimes displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The couple has been courted by numerous public museums, primarily SFMOMA, which recently discussed building a new wing for the Fisher collection, not unlike the LA. County Museum's arrangement with Eli Broad [see "Artworld"]. If the current CAMP design is executed, the museum will have 55,000 square feet of gallery space, about 5,000 more than SFMOMA has.
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