The second part of the Eames Institute Collector's Circle was a trip to Novato to see the future home of the museum.
John Savage Bolles was the architect of record on the project. He also designed Candlestick Park, an IBM campus in San Jose, and Embarcadero Plaza. It was built in 1964 as the McGraw-Hill Publishing Western distribution center. They left in 1991 and Birkenstock moved in the same year. In 2007 the German sandal maker moved out of the building, only to return in 2012, although they only used the offices. Birkenstock left for good in 2020 and it has remained empty.
Although rumors were circulating for several years about it, in 2025 that the Eames Institute announced they purchased the property.
John Cary, President and CEO of the Eames Institute, led this part of the day. He shared the institute's vision for the property. First and foremost, it will be a design museum, with a focus on Eames. However, it's going to much more than that.
The warehouse building gets most of the attention because of that incredible roof, but the office building behind it is great as well. Not to mention the rest of the 88.5 acre site!
Down the highway in Corte Madera, Bolles designed another building for McGraw-Hill in 1960.
Source: Daily Independent Journal, Jan 12, 1960
The screen is by San Francisco sculptor Harry Crotty who studied at CCA. The sculpture really made the building. Otherwise it was a pretty utilitarian structure.
It survived until at least 2011, sans the screen. Now the site is home to a
4-over-1 apartment complex that has even less curb appeal, without the benefit of the art.
Photo: Art in Architecture by Louis G. Redstone
Sadly, most of the major buildings by Bolles have been demolished. Candlestick Park was demolished in 2015. IBM Building 025 was lost to a fire in 2008. It had an impressive art program, as seen
here. Now there is a
small memorial to the building, which is in a Lowe's parking lot. Then, just recently, Armand Vaillancourt Fountain at Embarcadero Plaza
was removed. In a 1976 interview, Bolles talked about how pleased he was for his role in the plaza design and said he was the one who brought in
Vaillancourt. He had a reputation for incorporating art in his architecture projects. John and his wife Mary Piper, for 16 years, ran the John Bolles Art Gallery in the same building his architectural firm was located. John was also Chairman of the Board of the San Francisco Art Institute.
Photo: IBM San Jose Facility via Bob Emerson
The book business was good in booming California because McGraw-Hill needed a much larger distribution center to replace one in Corte Madera less than five years after the building opened. They must have liked what Bolles did for them because he was hired to do their next Bay Area endeavour.
Image: Eames Institute
The Novato complex it sited 400 feet back from Highway 101. The building was originally planned on the existing grade, then Bolles decided to excavate the site. The dirt from the excavation was used to form the mounds in front of it. Permit approval conditioned that the berm be landscaped. The planners at the City called the design "unusual but interesting."
A tunnel was supposed to be constructed under the hill to provide truck access under the building. That didn't happen but there is a pedestrian tunnel connecting the office building to the warehouse.
The parking is obscured with earth mounds to preserve a natural appearance. Built directly into an area cut into the hillside contours, is the 38,000-square foot office and cafeteria is behind the warehouse. This structure utilizes a precast concrete roof that mirrors the hill's natural slope, while additional mounding around the truck service zones reinforces the site's topography. The mounds also act as a sound buffer.
Source: Novato Advance, January 27, 1965
The office and cafeteria buildings.
The Eames Institute has interviewed former employees to get photos and details of the original design to help with the restoration.
This is behind the office building where the ledge was cut into the hillside.
Bolles had an interest in Mexican Architecture, including writing a 1977 book,
Las Monjas: A Major Pre-Mexican Architectural Complex at Chichén Itzá. The interest began in college at Harvard, when he was hired to work on archeological projects throughout the world, including in the Yucatan.
In the flyleaf of the book, it states... "He is persuaded of the inseparability of art and archaeology — exemplified by the discoveries at Las Monjas." Someone smarter than me might be able to share some insight into possible inspiration from Chichén Itzá,
on the McGraw-Hill project.
Besides the relief on the retaining wall, I'm not sure if Bolles was able to get much art into the Novato McGraw-Hill campus like he did in Corte Madera. There will certainly be a lot coming in soon with the Eames Institute. Wouldn't it be great if they somehow relocated the Vaillancourt Fountain to Novato? Two historic skateboarding spots on one property. I'm getting ahead of myself.
There's the Eames Collector's Circle crew.
Although Bolles was the head architect on the project, Jan Lubicz-Nycz was the project designer. The structural engineer was Raj Desai.
The roof of the warehouse was almost certainly inspired by Mexican architecture. The 82 hyperbolic paraboloid concrete shells look similar to the work of Felix Candela.
The Spanish- born architect is considered the father of the thin-shelled concrete roof, known as cascarones. In 1962 Candela spoke at the World Conference on Shell Structures, in San Francisco. Desai is thought to have attended the conference. Candela spoke about the hypar-shelled factories and warehouses he built in Mexico.
I did a post on one of his factories in Mexico City:
And a few other buildings:
As alluded to earlier, the roof was a hot skate spot back in the day. Despite having a soft surface, folks would break into the property and skate the roof. The Eames Institute wants to celebrate this past and want your photos or videos of people skating the roof.
Brad Staba skated it in the late 1990s.
That's when it was serving as a Birkenstocks distribution facility. There are still small traces of that time in the warehouse.
I love that they kept this up.
The warehouse is enormous. A 1965 article explains that the first stage was this 136,000 square feet building, and an additional 114,000 square feet would come in 1968 or so. That obviously didn't happen.
John Cary is explaining some of the improvements the institute is planning to make. This includes removing a lot of that pipe and conduit mess obscuring that beautiful ceiling.
Another upgrade will be to the windows. The glass will be clear in order to see the incredible landscape from inside the exhibition space.
The Institute is working with the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron and San Francisco–based EHDD to "reimagine" the campus and surrounding property. This includes art installations, hiking trails and a connection to their
ranch. They are currently working through the permit process and anticipate the museum will open in 2030.
A lot has happened from when I visited what was still the Birkenstock building,
in 2014.
The second part of the Eames Institute Collector's Circle was a trip to Novato to see the future home of the museum.
John Cary, President and CEO of the Eames Institute, led this part of the day. He shared the institute's vision for the property. First and foremost, it will be a design museum, with a focus on Eames. However, it's going to much more than that.
Down the highway in Corte Madera, Bolles designed another building for McGraw-Hill in 1960.
The Novato complex it sited 400 feet back from Highway 101. The building was originally planned on the existing grade, then Bolles decided to excavate the site. The dirt from the excavation was used to form the mounds in front of it. Permit approval conditioned that the berm be landscaped. The planners at the City called the design "unusual but interesting."
The office and cafeteria buildings.
Bolles had an interest in Mexican Architecture, including writing a 1977 book, Las Monjas: A Major Pre-Mexican Architectural Complex at Chichén Itzá. The interest began in college at Harvard, when he was hired to work on archeological projects throughout the world, including in the Yucatan. In the flyleaf of the book, it states... "He is persuaded of the inseparability of art and archaeology — exemplified by the discoveries at Las Monjas." Someone smarter than me might be able to share some insight into possible inspiration from Chichén Itzá,on the McGraw-Hill project.
Although Bolles was the head architect on the project, Jan Lubicz-Nycz was the project designer. The structural engineer was Raj Desai. 
