Two companies have been selected to erect a new building on the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) campus to house, among other things, Diego Rivera’is famous Pan American Unit mural from 1940.
The new Diego Rivera Theater will be designed by the Seattle-based firm LMN Architects and based in San Francisco EFT design. The two teams will develop a community cultural center structured around the mural, which has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) since 2021 and whose full title is The marriage of artistic expression from the North and the South on this continent.
The new theater will be connected to three halls supplemented by additional halls for administration, instruction and practice spaces. One will be a 100-seat recital hall, the other will be a 150-seat studio theatre, and the other will be a 600-seat performance hall, the main location for the drama and music departments of the CCSF.
Passers-by will be able to appreciate Rivera’s mural without even entering the building thanks to its glass foyer. “The lobby will showcase the artwork and allow students and visitors to view the mural from multiple angles,” said LMN Partner John Chau. SF Yimby.
A rendering of a frontal view of the Pan American Unit mural at the Diego Rivera Theater Project © LMN Architects
Created in 1940 in front of a live audience at the Golden Gate International Exposition over San Francisco Bay treasure island, Pan American Unit was Rivera’s last public project in the United States. Painted on ten large cement panels, the imposing mural is 22 feet high and 74 feet wide.
TEF Design Partner Douglas Tom said, “For many years the mural was a hidden treasure, hidden from the public in a neglected campus theater. Not only will the new theater complete the western expansion of the CCSF campus across Frida Kahlo Way, but its open glass lobby will also allow students, locals and visitors to connect and enjoy the world-class treasure in a museum-like setting.
CCSF’s Diego Rivera Theater is scheduled to open in 2027.
