San Francisco’s New Asian Palace

This week the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco opens in a new home. “The building – the old Main Library in Civic Center – has been deftly restructured inside by Italian architect Gae Aulenti, famous for having transformed the 1900 Gare d’Orsay train station in Paris into the tremendously popular Musee d’Orsay. The overall cost will be $160.5 million, and it gives the Asian Art Museum the kind of prestige and stature to which it has aspired.”