de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

de Young Museum is located in San Francisco in the Golden Gate Park. The one standing is a replacement for the prior one. The prior one was destroyed in the 1989 Loma Earthquake. Which was later demolished in 2002. The architect that built the best museum by design would be granted the privilege of designing and creating the new one. However, this competition was held in 1998, before the old museum was demolished. The architects by the manes of Herzog and de Meuron, entered and won, receiving the commission in 1999.

Their design consisted of a copper façade, cladding the museum exteriors. It has three public entrances. The main entrance, the second by the café and the sculpted garden on the west and the third at the east end. It is really rare for a museum to have so many entrances. The actual museum consist of two buildings, the building they hold all the exhibitions in and a tower. Now, the twisting tower serves as an observation deck and the Museum Store are on the ninth floor. The ninth floor's walls are all glass windows. The Main Court is on the ground floor connecting to the other uses. The basement holds temporary exhibits, while it also connects to the parking garage. While the upper two levels hold more permanent exhibits are placed on the upper two levels


What I loved the most about the de Young Museum was the view the observation deck provided. It provided a spectacular view of the city, the bay area and the Sculpted Garden that it shares with The Academy of Natural Sciences.