An eye-catching Novato building is going from calceology to ergonomics.
The egg-carton designed campus that formerly housed footwear-giant Birkenstock is planned as the future home of a museum dedicated to the works of Ray and Charles Eames, whose mid-20th century furniture designs are considered classics of the modern era.
The 88.5-acre property at Wood Hollow Drive, parallel to Highway 101 in Novato, has been purchased by the Eames Institute, a nonprofit focused on preserving and commemorating the work of the Eames Office, which produced works by the husband-and-wife design team known for their innovative furniture, architecture and other multi-media endeavors.
The property, empty since Birkenstock moved out in 2020, was purchased for $36 million and includes a 134,000-square-foot warehouse and 32,000-square-foot office complex originally built in 1964 and housed by the McGraw Hill publishing company.
The functional, modular aesthetics of the Eames’ furniture are represented in their lounge chairs, ottomans, sofas, molded plastic chairs and more, as well as their innovative use of wire, plywood and aluminum in design. Eames coat racks, storage units and even a House of Cards deck for kids also made their marks in the 1950s and 1960s. The Eames Office wasn’t all about household items—the 1977 short film they produced, Powers of 10—which took viewers from the Earth to the outer limits of space and all the way back to a closeup view of an atom—became a staple of high school science classrooms for a generation.
The Eames Institute is currently based in Richmond where the Eames archives are stored; its collection includes nearly 40,000 pieces, many of the more notable are displayed in Richmond at the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity. It’s undecided yet as to whether the institute will retain its Richmond foothold once the Novato campus opens.
The institute plans a makeover of the space-age looking Novato building, originally designed by modern architect John Savage Bolles, whose work included Candlestick Park and the Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco. The building update will be done in conjunction with San Francisco-based EHDD Architecture and Herzog & de Meuron, a Swiss firm known for designing the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Tate Modern gallery in London. The remodel is expected to be completed by 2028.
