M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, California.

View up the tower

On October 17 1989, the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck in the early evening. It measured 7.1 (Ms) in intensity and there were damages to the original museum, founded in 1894, resulting in the loss of $10 million worth of irreplaceable art.

The earthquake occurred when the crustal rocks comprising the Pacific and North American Plates abruptly slipped as much as (7 ft) along their common boundary-the San Andreas fault system.

Repairs were made and engineers evaluated what should be done with the original structure. In 1997, The Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities ruled that the de Young will no longer be able to host large international traveling exhibitions because the federal government will no longer insure the shows because the museum is unsafe.

In 2001, The Asian Art Museum (part of the de Young) closes its facility Oct. 7.

The battle over whether or not to replace the museum raged on for 7 long years. Finally in 2002, the San Francisco's Board of Supervisors gives its blessing to the project and a brand new museum is designed. It opened in 2005.

Building Statistics:

Clad in 70,000 square feet of copper sheeting.
There are 7,200 custom-built artistic copper panels
70,000 sf of gallery space
The museum is open 7 1/2 hours every day.
There are 7 large rocks as part of a seating area at the museum entry.
Funding for the project was raised by private donations from over 7,000 notable individuals in San Francisco to the tune of over $178 million.