The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific FilmArchive unveiled plans by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the New York based-architects responsible forthe first portion of the city's Highline park, as well as Boston's Instituteof Contemporary Art, to build the institution's highly-anticipated new futuristic metal home.

The architectural firm, comprised of Elizabeth Diller,Ricardo Scofidio, and Charles Renfro, plans to transform a 1938 former printingplant on downtown Berkeley'sCenter Street by covering it with a zinc exterior and adding more space for the museum's galleries, 32-seatscreening room, gift shop, offices, libraries, and education centers. The firmintends to hang on to the Art Deco-style building's original façade,northern-facing skylights, and sawtooth roof, but to make room for the museum'scollection, it will excavate the lower level to carve 12,500 more square feet ofgallery space. Other charming amenities include the outward-extending second-floor café, designed to hover above the sidewalk, along with the projector screen along its Oxford Street wall for viewing on the lawn. 

Plans for a new home for the BAM/PFA were put into motion in1997 when its current MarioCampi-designed Bancroft Way location didn't measure up to current seismic standards. After scrapping less-than-affordable plans to have Tokyo-basedfirm of Toyo Ito & Associates design a new building in 2009, the museumenlisted 10 architectural firms to submit new plans. The BAM/PFA chose DillerScofidio + Renfro out of some sizable competition — Ann Beha and Tod Williams Bill Tsien Architectsamong them.

DillerScofidio + Renfro have their handsfull with California art projects, recently beginning construction of Eli Broad's BunkerHill, three-story,114,000-square-foot museum in downtown L.A.

The new BAM/PFA is projected to cost $100 million, and hasalready raised $65 million.

To see the newly-released renderings, click the photos to the left.