Contemporary Jewish Museum
- Architect
- Daniel Libeskind
- Year
- 1984
- City
- San Francisco, CA
The Contemporary Jewish Museum was founded in 1984 and spent its first two decades in a small gallery space before settling into a striking new home in 2008: the gutted and rebuilt shell of the historic Jessie Street Substation in SoMa. Architect Daniel Libeskind redesigned the interior and added a new angular structure alongside the old power building, pairing a landmark utility structure with contemporary museum design. The museum closed in December 2024 amid financial troubles, and in 2026 announced plans to sell the building.
the building
Substation reborn. The museum occupies the shell of the historic Jessie Street Substation, a former power building that Libeskind gutted and rebuilt, adding a new angular structure alongside it so that a utilitarian industrial landmark became gallery space.
the architect
Daniel Libeskind is known internationally for angular, fractured contemporary architecture; here he combined the preservation of a historic substation shell with a new addition, redesigning the interior for museum use ahead of the 2008 opening.
significance
Financial problems forced the museum to close in December 2024, and in 2026 it announced it would sell its building to raise funds, an uncertain turn for an institution that had only occupied the Libeskind-designed home since 2008.
nearby
- Building at 735 Market Street
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Neiman-Marcus Department Store
- Flood Building
- City of Paris Dry Goods Co.
- Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences