Organized Labor

Innovative Design Ties Contemporary Elements to Original Historic Building 

By Paul Burton
Contributing Writer

Construction of the new Contemporary Jewish Museum is on schedule and will be completed by the end of the year, according to Mike Banska, Project Manager for CJM Plant Construction, the General Contractor. The new facility features an adaptive re-use of the former Jessie Street Power Substation on Mission Street across from Yerba Buena Gardens, with a radical design by architect Daniel Libeskind, in a joint venture with WRNS Studio of San Francisco.

The new $47.5 million Museum will have over 63,000 square feet of space over three floors with exhibition areas, retail store, offices, meeting rooms, a multi-purpose room, and a café. The new facility allows the CJM to expand its exhibitions and educational programs and bring contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture, history, art and ideas to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

The new Museum includes increased exhibition space for the CJM to present original exhibitions, host traveling exhibitions and showcase collaborative exhibitions with Museums from around the world. An education center provides additional room to offer corresponding educational programs. The new facility will also house a special events gallery where visitors can experience original sound installations and musical performances. The Museum is scheduled to open June 8 with a series of exhibitions looking at Jewish culture.

Banska said that the project is an all-union job with about 60 subcontractors. An average of 80 to 100 workers have been on the job every day for the past four months. Construction on the CJM’s new facility broke ground on July 19, 2006. Topping out of the project was announced on January 12, 2007.

Banska said the combination of historical restoration work and construction of the unique design by Libeskind required some specialized work. “We have the new building we tied in to the old historic building,” he said. “It is a unique building with unique angles, different heights, and very little tolerance with the measurements and angles.”

“The blue skin on the new parts of the structure was done by A. Zahner out of Kansas City—the same contractor that did the DeYoung Museum,” he said. “There are only two or three contractors in the country who do that kind of installation.”

The blue steel material was custom-produced for the CJM by Rimex Metals (UK) Lt. and then fabricated into individual panels and installed by A. Zahner. The company used computer-controlled equipment in the manufacturing process to ensure accurate reproduction. The building will be the first to feature a unique cross-hatching surface finish, which helps to diffuse and soften the reflection of light off the blue stainless steel, according to a CJM press release.

Over 3,000 blue stainless steel panels will cover the exterior of the facility’s new addition.

Olson Steel did the structural steel work. Once the structural steel was set with all the different angles, the framing and drywall had to be installed carefully Banska said. “Anning-Johnson did a great job on that,” he added.

Architect Libeskind said his design was inspired by the phrase “L’Chaim,” meaning “To Life.” The two Hebrew letters of chai, the “chet” and the “yud,” were the source for the building’s form, he said. “The building, rooted in the Jewish imagination, opens itself to the diverse contemporary currents of life and makes a fundamental contribution to the renaissance of the Yerba Buena cultural district,” Libeskind said. He added that the blue steel skin transforms the building into “a metal-clad jewel like a beacon glowing into the future.”

Restoration of the brick and terra cotta tile in the old substation was done by Sullivan-Thompson Masonry, based in San Francisco. The original Jessie Street Substation was built in 1881, then remodeled by architect Willis Polk after the fires following the 1906 earthquake. The substation was designed during the “City Beautiful Movement,” which sought to beautify urban industrial buildings with neo-Classical elements, such as a towering, arched doorway, intricate cornice, and four cream-colored cherubs with garlands made of matte-glazed terra cotta—all of which have been carefully cleaned, patched and sealed to prevent further damage. It served as a PG&E substation until the late 1960s.

Finishing work is now being done, including final plumbing installation, painting, and pouring of the last of the concrete slabs. Although the construction will be completed by year’s end, the museum won’t open until the Jessie Square, a 1-acre plaza planned by the Redevelopment Agency between the Museum and St. Patrick’s church, is completed. Plant is also working on that project, building concrete wall and stone walls and doing landscaping.

“It made sense to use all union subcontractors since we’re a union company,” Banska said, acknowledging that the subcontractors with the skilled workers who can do specialized work are also union companies.