For almost half a century, the Judah L. Magnes Museum devoted its efforts to welcoming visitors by offering a wide array of exhibitions and public programs on the history and the cultures of the Jews in the Global Diaspora and the American West in its beloved location situated in the Elmwood residential neighborhood of Berkeley.

The gift of the collection to the University of California, Berkeley and the establishment of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at The Bancroft Library, is enhanced by the development of a new facility, located in downton Berkeley at 2121 Allston Way, near the UC Berkeley Campus and public transportation.

The new building, designed by Peter Pfau of PfauLong Architecture (San Francisco), is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2011. The facility, which will incorporate areas for displaying the permanent collection, for exhibitions and public programs, as well as collection study, seminar and student rooms, is being designed around an innovative principle of open collection storage.

Construction started earlier this Fall. Below is a short video documenting the initial work on the facility.