• View a video about Toyo Ito by filmmaker Bill Jersey.


• See photos of notable projects by Toyo Ito.


• Watch videos featuring remarks by Harrison Fraker and Dana Buntrock about the new building project.


• Watch videos featuring remarks by Harrison Fraker and Dana Buntrock about Toyo Ito’s work.
  


• Visit the architect’s website.

The responsibility that any world-class university has in selecting an architect for a new center for the visual arts is significant. The case can be made that UC Berkeley has an even greater responsibility, given that it is home to one of the finest university art museums and film archives in the world, as well as an internationally respected School of Architecture and Design and College of Letters and Science, and the nation’s top-ranked College of Engineering. The task is made even more challenging by the Berkeley community, which has its own rich reputation and history as an important safe harbor for artists and the protection of free expression.

The process that resulted in the selection of Toyo Ito of Japan as design architect for the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive following a review of 141 internationally recognized architects is an indication of UC Berkeley’s serious effort to meet these high expectations. Ito was selected for his remarkable capacity to balance the demand for design innovation and the equally significant expectations for cutting-edge engineering. While honoring the University and community’s collective influence in art and film, he has provided a visual arts gateway capable of absorbing the intellectual, cultural, and seismic shifts that the twenty-first century will undoubtedly bring to Berkeley.

Widely recognized as being among the foremost architects today, Ito is the creator of innovative and technically inspired spaces in Japan and around the world. His designs use steel, aluminum, and glass to create buildings that are permeable and accessible, and that react and respond to the human and built environments that surround them.

“Toyo Ito is the perfect choice for this project. His designs embrace values that align with those of the Berkeley community, such as environmental sensitivity and sustainability, and the importance of accessibility and transparency for public institutions,” says Noel Nellis, BAM/PFA Board President. “It is appropriate that UC Berkeley will be home to the first major U.S. project by this important and innovative architect, whose work embodies the experimental and innovative tradition of the campus. Our new facility will be an architectural and cultural icon for generations of UC Berkeley students, the Berkeley community, the Bay Area, and beyond.”

Ito graduated from Tokyo University's Department of Architecture in 1965. After a period of time in the firm of Kiyonori Kikutake Architect and Associates, he started his own studio, Urban Robot (URBOT), in 1971 in Tokyo. In 1979, the studio changed its name to Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects.

Among his most acclaimed early projects are the White U House (1976), Silver Hut (1984), the Yatsushiro Municipal Museum (1991), and Tower of Winds (1986). More recently Ito drew international attention with his Médiathèque (2001), a multi-use facility housing a library and digital media center for the city of Sendai, Japan, that has been described as “an urban spectacle at its most refined.”

Toyo Ito is an honorary fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, and his many awards include The Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2000), the World Architecture Award, Best Building in East Asia (2002), the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the international jury of the 8th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale (2002), and the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture from the Royal Institute of British Architects (2006).

Learn more about the architect selection process and the other finalists.

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