Since 2012, ArtRise Projects has provided the Board of Trustees and Executive Team at Fort Mason with ongoing strategic counsel regarding campus master planning and arts program implementation. Most recently, ArtRise worked with the staff and board to develop a Strategic Arts Program and Audience Engagement Plan completed in the spring of 2017.
ArtRise began working with the Fort Mason leadership team in an effort to inform the selection of an architect for Fort Mason Center’s 2012 Design Competition. Principal Marnie Burke de Guzman conducted research on a range of organizations leading the cultural field in efforts to animate and revitalize historic sites — many of them former military or industrial installations — with innovative arts and community programs. Fort Mason was in the vanguard of these types of initiatives when it was founded in 1977 as an arts and culture–focused hub of the first urban national park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. To provide creative and practical design concepts to further enliven and integrate the site, Fort Mason selected the team lead by West 8, an award-winning international office for urban design and landscape architecture.
West 8’s design calls for seven key strategies that bolster and preserve Fort Mason’s legacy and naval military identity while activating the water’s edge, improving pedestrian access and parking, and enlivening spaces for expanded public programming and arts. The design will enable Fort Mason Center — renamed Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture as part of a rebranding effort in 2015 — to realize its full potential, both as a vital and stimulating location for arts and culture, and as an attractive destination for enjoyment of the site. Late that year, ArtRise produced the first proof of concept art installation in the newly renovated Gallery 308, Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet.
Burke de Guzman continues to consult with the executive and project teams regarding organizational strategy and the development of artistic programming in support of the larger campus master planning process.
Project Team
Architectural Resources Group Inc.
ArtRise Projects
Marnie Burke de Guzman, Principal — Strategic Arts Program Planning
Fort Mason Center
Rich Hillis, Executive Director
Related Links
- Fort Mason Center
- FMC Design Competition – SF Chronicle coverage: Read online or download PDF.
- Off the Grid at Fort Mason
- FMC Master Plan Related Changes in the News
- Architect’s Newspaper coverage: Read online or download PDF.
- 2017 San Francisco Cultural Highlights – SF Chronicle coverage: Read online or download PDF.
- “Fort Mason now a fully realized arts destination” – SF Chronicle coverage: Read online or download PDF.
Image Credits
- Top: Off the Grid at Fort Mason. Image courtesy Fort Mason Center.
- Middle: Fort Mason reimagined: new connectivity on the primary waterfront. © West 8, 2012.
- Bottom left: Fort Mason reimagined: desirable access to the water. © West 8, 2012.
- Bottom right: Fort Mason reimagined: intimate cultural plaza. © West 8, 2012.