You may have lost your chance to snatch a piece of the Berlin Wall, but there’s plenty of opportunity to buy and wear a piece of contemporary architecture, so to speak. The anticipated expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, designed by Snøhetta, opens this May, and to celebrate, the SFMOMA Museum Store is exclusively selling a range of jewelry pieces that are inspired by architectural elements of both the new building and the original 1995 Mario Botta design.
Diana Schimmel’s long necklace; all photography by Maria Del Rio, courtesy SFMOMA
The Museum Store commissioned four design talents — three architects and an industrial designer, all women — to draw on the dynamic new façade by Snøhetta, the iconic oculus of the original museum and the institution’s new monumental 16,000-plant living wall for the necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.
Alice Roche Flow necklaces
Snøhetta’s stunning water-evoking rippled façade, realized in fiberglass-reinforced polymer, found its way into most of the designs. Former architect Alice Roche’s Flow collection, for instance, recreates the horizontal striations in silver for three pendant necklaces and a pair of bar-style earrings. Her Flow Multi necklace cuts the pendant into strips and adds silver and oxidized silver crimp tube beading.
Andrea Panico’s take on the façade presents waves in varying scales and phases: Emerging Ripple is a broad, sweeping undulation realized in brass, silver or a combination of the two for bracelets, earrings and a necklace, while the Single Ripple bracelet is a wide silver bangle with an asymmetric wave line. And Stacked Ripple, also in silver, consists of earrings, a pendant necklace, cuff bracelet and ring with a design of overlapping strips.
From left: Andrea Panico’s Stacked Ripple Necklace and Earrings, two views of Emerging Ripple Necklace and Single Ripple bracelet
Architect Marion Cage McCollam (who once worked for Zaha Hadid) conceived silver double-, triple- and quadruple-ripple bangles and a wide cuff stacking 13 ripples. For her two silver necklaces and stud earrings, however, she renders the ripples as vertical tabs in staggered formation.
From left: Marion Cage McCollam’s bangle bracelets, large pendant necklace and cuff bracelet
Finally, architect Diana Schimmel created two mini capsule collections for the SFMOMA Museum Store. Wall necklace and drop earrings posit a single gold-plated silver disk representing the oculus of the Botta-designed museum against shard-shaped metal stampings that channel the Snøhetta addition. Her other collection — which includes three statement necklaces and two chandelier earring designs — features leaf- and petal-shaped mixed metal stampings that reference the massive living wall.
From left: Diana Schimmel’s Moveable Small Gem earrings, Wall necklace and Wall earrings
Unlike the Zaha jewelry that was unveiled last week at Baselworld, these elegant accessories can be had at more affordable prices, from $45 to $750 USD. SFMOMA and its Museum Store will open on May 14, but shoppers can purchase the pieces through the museum’s online store now.
