San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum To Sell Daniel Libeskind–Designed Building
1March 25, 2026
On March 18,the Contemporary Jewish Museum(CJM) in San Franciscoannouncedplans to sell its building in the city’s downtown Yerba Buena neighborhood. The museum has been temporarily closed since December 2024 due to financial constraints, and this move is the latest in a bid to ensure a more “viable operating model” for the institution’s future, per an official release.Financial troubles have also plagued other Bay Areaart institutionsover the past few years. Since shutting down, the CJM has laid off staff and trimmed its budget from $7.5 million to $3 million, which helped reduce the remaining debt on a $28 million loan to below $14 million, according to theSan Francisco Chronicle. The forty-two-year-old institution, which was founded to foster pride in Jewish culture, enrich communities, and combat intolerance, has occupied the 19th-century Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s Jessie Street Substation since 2008, after a major renovation and the incorporation of a cubical deconstructivist addition by Studio Libeskind.The 63,000-square-foot building is part of a cultural district that includes the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Museum of the African Diaspora. It will be listed publicly for sale this week, and the CJM stated that it aims to find a buyer who would be “complementary” to the neighborhood’s cultural landscape.In the announcement Kerry King, the museum’s executive director, asserted that in spite of these changes, the institution’s leadership is committed to remaining part of the Bay Area’s arts scene, and said: “While our physical home may evolve, our dedication to serving as an essential hub for art, culture, and Jewish life remains unwavering.”