I drove past Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco quite a few months ago, and noticed something unnatural-looking rising above the trees. I wondered what the hell it could be, but I never imagined it could be something as interesting as the new de Young Museum. The museum’s collections actually don’t interest me much, but the building itself could be amazing. It was designed by the Swiss architecture firm, Herzog & de Meuron, the same guys who “redesigned” the Tate Modern in London.

The museum’s unique and dramatic copper façade is embossed and perforated with a pattern representing the impression made by dappled light filtering through leaves in a tree canopy, creating an abstract pattern on the face of the museum that resonates with the de Young’s wooded park setting. The building’s copper skin will progressively fade from a bright copper to a cinnamon color and eventually assume a rich green patina that will blend gracefully with the surrounding natural environment.

It’s also worth mentioning that they have commissioned works by Gerhard Richter, James Turrell, and Andy Goldsworthy for the exterior of the museum.

Read more about the de Young Museum, and check out their nifty searchable imageBase at the de Young website.