Herzog & de Meuron Designs Eames Institute Museum in a Novato Warehouse

The Eames Institute has unveiled designs for a new museum in Novato, California, that will convert an existing mid-century modern industrial campus into an 88.5-acre cultural destination. Herzog & de Meuron developed the scheme in collaboration with executive architects EHDD and landscape architects Field Operations. The Eames Institute museum in Novato is scheduled to open in 2030.

The Institute acquired the site in August 2025, which marked 60 years since the completion of its principal building. McGraw-Hill Company originally commissioned that building, and Jan Lubicz-Nycz designed it for the office of John Savage Bolles. The 134,000-square-foot warehouse will be adapted for public use through adaptive reuse, while it keeps its distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid roof and its original geometry.

The design centers on connecting exhibition spaces with workshops, gathering areas, and the surrounding landscape. A new 120-foot-long bridge, clad in mirror-finish steel, will overlook flexible galleries and making spaces within the building’s central hall. That hall reaches 36 feet at its highest points, and it will accommodate exhibitions, performances, and events.

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Inside, the museum will also incorporate studios and wood and ceramics workshops, so creative processes will sit alongside the displayed collections. Recessed glass facades on the northern and southern elevations will create sheltered outdoor porches. These porches connect the interior to the gardens and sculpture areas outside.

Field Operations’ landscape design comprises ten gardens linked by pathways and planted with native Californian species, including oak, manzanita and California poppy. Walking trails will extend beyond the museum towards Olompali State Historic Park. The Institute has begun the review, permitting, and approvals process with the City of Novato, and the center hopes to open in 2030.