Turning 100 is not a quiet affair at the San Diego Museum of Art. The museum is using its centennial to push a major rethink of its Balboa Park home, centered on a new west wing designed by Foster + Partners that it says will reshape public access, sustainability, and how the collection is experienced. Early concept sketches show rooftop sculpture terraces, a community pavilion, and a series of tucked-away outdoor spaces that call back to historic park features. Models and a video walkthrough are already on view in the centennial exhibition, even as city permitting and tricky logistics are still in progress. The proposal has quickly kicked up a mix of excitement and debate across San Diego.
Design reaches back to the park’s 1915 roots
Foster + Partners emerged from a global pool of about 60 applicants, and the concept leans hard into Balboa Park’s past. The design nods to long-lost park elements, including a reflecting pond and a wooden 1915 loggia that reappear in the museum’s renderings and models. Inside the exhibition, visitors can pore over large renderings, a movie-style walkthrough, and cross-section models that reveal plans for new basement galleries and underground parking. Chief curator Anita Feldman says the scheme is built around sustainability and a more open, community-centered museum experience, according to Times of San Diego.
Local partner, design prize and what the museum says
The proposal has already picked up some hardware, snagging a Signature Project Design Award during San Diego Design Week. The museum has tapped Safdie Rabines Architects as the local executive architect to collaborate with Foster + Partners. In its messaging, the museum frames the project as a way to roughly double display space, introduce visible storage, and add a public pavilion and rooftop dining aimed at boosting community access, per Safdie Rabines Architects.
Preservationists push back
Preservation advocates, however, are not exactly throwing a party. The San Diego Architectural Foundation handed the project an “Onion” in its 2025 Orchids & Onions awards under the historic preservation category, flagging concerns about plans to demolish the museum’s 1960s west wing. The listing highlights local unease over how the new design could affect Balboa Park’s historic character and the tradeoffs involved in swapping an older wing for a contemporary addition, per the San Diego Architectural Foundation.
Permits, heavy logistics and the road ahead
For now, the project is still on paper. Permits are in progress, and the museum has not yet broken ground. Planners say construction could start this year, but a long list of logistics remains unresolved, from how to safely move hefty outdoor sculptures to where tens of thousands of artworks would live during renovations, according to Times of San Diego. Foster + Partners, a global studio that emphasizes sustainability and integrated design, brings a track record of high-profile and technically demanding projects that the museum says helped drive its selection, per Foster + Partners.
See the models during centennial events
The models, plans, and video walkthrough are featured in SDMA’s exhibition “A New Vision for the Next Century,” one of the centerpieces of its centennial programming. That lineup includes exhibition openings starting next Saturday and a public birthday celebration on Feb. 28, with free admission and special events throughout the day. Dates, ticket details, and project updates are posted on SDMA’s centennial page.
