In the wake of a prestigious award, the Museum forges a path toward its landmark renovation alongside new partnership with local firm
SAN DIEGO, CA (September 19, 2025) – The San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) announced today it has been chosen for the Signature Project Design Award for Museum Renovation, an accolade that recognizes the Museum’s forward-looking approach to evolving cultural institutions. Alongside this news, the Museum has announced its selection of acclaimed San Diego firm Safdie Rabines Architects to partner with the internationally renowned Foster + Partners on the planned renovation of its Balboa Park home.
The Signature Project Design Awards, presented by the Design Forward Alliance as part of San Diego Design Week, spotlight San Diego’s leading design projects and their designers’ visionary contributions to the local design ecosystem. The Design Forward Alliance celebrates SDMA’s commitment to creating a dynamic and accessible space that serves the community’s evolving needs. The award ceremony, which took place on September 17, highlighted the institution’s innovative plans for its future.
“We are deeply honored by this recognition,” said Roxana Velásquez, Maruja Baldwin Executive Director and CEO of The San Diego Museum of Art. “This award recognizes our commitment to a more welcoming, sustainable, and community-centered museum, and our partnership with Safdie Rabines Architects alongside Foster + Partners moves us from vision into detailed design. Progress is being made, and we’re excited to bring San Diego with us.”
The selection of Safdie Rabines Architects as executive architect marks a pivotal moment in the Museum’s renovation project. The local firm will collaborate with Foster + Partners, bringing their extensive expertise in sustainable and contextually sensitive design to the undertaking. This vision will ensure the renovation respects and preserves the historic architecture of the Balboa Park site while introducing modern functionality and a seamless integration with the surrounding landscape. The project is set to transform the visitor experience, enhance exhibition spaces, and introduce new community-focused amenities.
Founded in San Diego in 1993 by husband and wife Ricardo Rabines and Taal Safdie, the firm’s design philosophy centers on creating significant, meaningful places with an emphasis on San Diego’s public realms, as well as blurring the lines between architectural structures and nature. For more than three decades, Safdie Rabines Architects has designed both private and public work, from custom single-family residences to a wide range of civic and public work, academic and higher education facilities, mixed-use developments, and master planned communities. The firm’s many recognizable projects include Epstein Family Amphitheater, located at a gateway to UC San Diego’s campus and a popular venue for concerts and performing arts; Scripps Seaside Forum, a conference center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography with a flexible auditorium that opens to the ocean; and Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge, an iconic downtown bridge traversed by many on their way to and from Petco Park and the Convention Center.
“As architects who live and work in San Diego, we have been waiting for this important moment of transformation in Balboa Park,” stated Ricardo Rabines, Founding Partner of Safdie Rabines Architects. “The Museum is on the cusp of a new era full of opportunities to elevate art and culture in our region and will play a key role in the future of our city.”
“We’re delighted to welcome Safdie Rabines Architects to the team and look forward to collaborating with them to reinvigorate a San Diego landmark with a sustainable and community focused scheme that will enhance public access to art,” said Kirsten Scott, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners.
“Safdie Rabines Architects’ deep understanding of the local landscape and their commitment to sustainable, thoughtful design are perfectly aligned with our vision for this project,” added Velásquez. “This local expertise, combined with the global perspective of Foster + Partners, will ensure our museum’s renovation honors its history while creating a truly future-forward space for the community.”
These announcements arrive on the heels of the opening of SDMA’s new exhibition A New Vision for the Next Century on August 30, a showcase of the upcoming SDMA West Wing renovation featuring architectural models by Foster + Partners. In addition to creating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly museum that respects its unique history and site within Balboa Park, the plans also increase free accessibility, expand community and education opportunities, double display space, and safeguard the Museum’s collection for generations to come with new publicly visible storage that enables behind-the-scenes glimpses of exhibition preparation and conservation.
A media image from the exhibition is available here.
Additional images/renderings from the San Diego Museum of Art can be found here.
Images of the Safdie Rabines Architects team and projects can be found here.
For more information on The San Diego Museum of Art or to purchase tickets or membership, visit SDMArt.org.
About The San Diego Museum of Art
Providing a rich and diverse cultural experience, The San Diego Museum of Art houses some of the world’s finest art. Located in the heart of Balboa Park, the Museum’s internationally renowned collection of more than 32,000 works—dating from 3000 BC to present day—includes Spanish and Italian old masters, the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection of South Asian paintings, East Asian art, art from the Americas, Modern and Contemporary art, and the Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art (MOPA@SDMA). The Museum regularly features major exhibitions of art from around the world, as well as extensive cultural and community engagement programs for all ages. The San Diego Museum of Art hosts experiences that invite visitors to explore art through music, dance, film, food, and so much more. At The San Diego Museum of Art, exhibition text is always in English and Spanish.
The San Diego Museum of Art is located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 92101. The Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art is located at 1649 El Prado in Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 92101.
General Information: (619) 232-7931
Group Sales: (619) 696-1935
Website: SDMArt.org
X: @SDMA
Instagram: @SanDiegoMuseumofArt
Facebook: @TheSanDiegoMuseumofArt
YouTube: @SanDiegoMuseumofArt
About Safdie Rabines Architects
Established in San Diego in 1993 by husband-and-wife team Ricardo Rabines and Taal Safdie, Safdie Rabines Architects (SRA) is a full-service architecture, interiors, and urban design firm employing more than 50 local architects, designers, and support staff. SRA’s portfolio includes diverse civic and public work, K–12 and higher education projects, mixed-use communities, master planning and infrastructure, and single-family private residences. SRA is located at 925 Fort Stockton Drive in San Diego’s Mission Hills neighborhood, and can be reached at (619) 297-6153 and online at www.safdierabines.com and @safdierabines.
About Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners is a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design, rooted in sustainability, which was founded over fifty years ago in 1967 by Norman Foster. Since then, he and the team around him have established an international practice with a worldwide reputation for thoughtful and pioneering design, working as a single studio that is both ethnically and culturally diverse. The studio integrates the skills of architecture with engineering, both structural and environmental, urbanism, interior and industrial design, model and film making, aeronautics and many more – our collegiate working environment is similar to a compact university. These diverse skills make us capable of tackling a wide range of projects, particularly those of considerable complexity and scale. Design is at the core of everything that we do. We design buildings, spaces and cities; we listen, we question, and we innovate.
The studio has worked on a wide range of project in the United States, including Heart Headquarters in New York, Apple Park and the revitalisation of the Transamerica Pyramid in California, Smithsonian Institution Courtyard, Washington DC, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Norton Museum of Art in Florida among many others. Currently, the practice is involved in projects such as the One Beverly Hills masterplan in California, and JPMorgan Chase’s new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in New York.