A nonprofit dedicated to the legacy of midcentury designers Ray and Charles Eames is buying the former Birkenstock campus in Marin County, and plans to redevelop the property as a global art and design museum aimed at attracting 200,000 visitors a year.
The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, which currently operates out of a warehouse in Richmond, has agreed to purchase the 88.5-acre Birkenstock property in Novato, known for its spiky white undulating roofline visible from Highway 101. The price was $36 million, according to real estate brokerage sources.
The organization has hired the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the firm that designed the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, to lead the repurposing of the property. While it’s too early to say what it will cost to transform the site into a world-class museum, Eames Institute President and Chief Executive Officer John Cary said it would likely be well in excess of what was paid for the property.
Located at 8171 Redwood Blvd. in Novato, the 166,000-square-foot campus includes the 123,000-square-foot warehouse — the size of two football fields — and a two-story, 43,000-square-foot concrete office building nestled in the hillside, which Cary calls “the sleeper.” The building will be redesigned to include office space for the institute, as well as retail and culinary offerings that will spill out onto a series of sculpture gardens and plazas…