Herzog & de Meuron and Field Operations release visuals of Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity

Master plan designs for the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity museum in California have been released, showing galleries connected via a bridge in an adapted 1960s warehouse and a landscape designed by Field Operations.

The updated design for the property in Navato, California, includes the 400-foot-long Great Hall, which the studios said will be "one of the largest single-span spaces for art installations in the country", a 275-seat theatre, a Japanese-inspired garden and children's play spaces.

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity (the Eames Institute) bought the 88.5-acre property in 2025 to establish a public exhibition space and museum for its collection of furniture and other objects designed by architects Charles and Ray Eames.

The site includes a sawtooth-roofed warehouse and office building designed by architects Jan Lubicz-Nycz and John Savage Bolles, which were originally built for the McGraw-Hill publishing company in 1965.

Shoe company Birkenstock USA operated out of the site until 2019. The Eames Institute now plans to adapt the landscape and buildings for the project.

Architecture studios Herzog & de Meuron and EHDD were signed onto the project when it was first announced last year, and with this most recent update, Field Operations has been announced as the landscape designer.

"What makes this place so extraordinary is the relationship between its remarkable architecture and the landscape of Marin County," said Field Operations partner Richard Kennedy.

"We imagined the grounds as a living extension of the museum. The idea is simple: ten landscapes, hundreds of places, and infinite journeys."

According to the team, the warehouse will contain galleries, maker spaces, a theatre and a cafe, while the former office building will be converted into a pavilion for events.

Visitors will enter the warehouse building past a fountain, into a "warm, wood-clad space" containing admissions and the museum shop.

A grand stair will lead to a 120-foot polished stainless-steel bridge that traverses the gallery spaces below. The renders show the spaces as largely open-plan, with the enormous concrete bevels of the roof exposed above.

Other spaces, such as wood and ceramic workshops, will be distributed throughout the building. According to the team, the material palette will primarily consist of colour-stained plywood and plaster, and aluminium windows to "create a dialogue between old and new".

For the landscape, Field Operations looked to an original plan by landscape architect Tito Patri, which used berms to help bury the buildings into their surroundings, buffering them from a highway which runs directly in front of the site.

The design includes a reconfigured parking and arrival sequence, gardens to the north and south of the warehouse, native stormwater gardens and custom furniture designed by the studio.

Overall, the masterplan will "transform what was once a private, truck-oriented industrial campus into a public cultural destination", according to the team.

"For my grandparents, design was always grounded in curiosity and intention – looking closely, asking questions, embracing constraints, and finding beauty in the practical and the functional," said Eames Institute co-founder Llisa Demetrios.

"The museum carries that spirit forward, and it feels especially meaningful to do so in a building that asked us to do the same: work within a remarkable existing structure to imagine what else it can become," she continued.

Groundbreaking is expected for 2028, with openings projected to begin in 2030.

The project has garnered some criticism for being backed by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who was appointed America’s first Chief Design Officer in 2025 under President Donald Trump.

Dezeen spoke to Gebbia about the appointment in 2025.

The Eames Institute was founded in 2023 and opened a California headquarters in 2024. San Francisco-based design agency Manual created its current brand identity and logo around the same time.

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