ICA To Build 62,000-SF Museum on Fan Pier

The four-story museum will be on a three-quarter-acre parcel that will be part of the "civic use" aspect of the Fan Pier project. The design of the museum integrates the public harborwalk of the waterfront into the building and produces shifting views of the waterfront throughout the museum, which will include 18,000 sf of exhibition space, a 300-seat performing arts theater, a media center, educational facilities, and a bookstore and restaurant

Completion of the museum, which is designed by New York- and New Jersey-based Diller & Scofidio as the studio's first major new building project in the US, is projected for spring 2006. A $60-million capital campaign is under way to support building and endowing the facility.

The museum is being called the "cultural cornerstone" of the Fan Pier project--the largest private development project on the South Boston waterfront. The development, which is being built by the Chicago-based Pritzker family, includes 675 residential units, a Grand Hyatt Hotel, 107,000 sf of civic and cultural space, several acres of parks and open areas, an extension of the Harbor Walk, a protected cove and a public marina providing numerous recreational activities. The project received its city and state approvals but it remains unclear when construction will actually begin.