San Francisco Art Museum to Move into Building Co-Owned by Trump

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco announced today that it will soon move from its current location in the Dogpatch neighborhood to 345 Montgomery St. in the Financial District, a building co-owned by Vornado Realty Trust and the Trump Organization.

The property is anchored by a 52-story tower at 555 California St., the former flagship building for Bank of America, which the Trump Organization describes in its list of holdings as an “iconic business address towering over San Francisco.” According to recent reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Business Times, the Trump Organization holds a 30% ownership stake in the property.

Asked about Trump’s stake in their future home, ICA founding director Ali Gass told KQED that “ICA San Francisco’s values are not at all aligned with Trump’s values.”

Gass added that fact would be made clear through the artists and programming the ICA supports in the new location, and stressed that the nonprofit has dealt exclusively with Vornado. “They have been extraordinarily generous and clearly believe deeply in the impact of a nonprofit arts organization,” she said.

The ICA’s future home, “The Cube,” was once a banking hall; the dramatic stone, glass and metal building was designed in 1971 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

The non-collecting institution will reopen on two floors of the five-story, 73,000-square-foot building on Oct. 25, more than doubling its current gallery space. And, through a deal with Vornado, it will do so at virtually no cost to itself: The ICA will enjoy free rent and utilities for two years.

Gass emphasized the benefits the ICA will bring to the immediate neighborhood, and to downtown San Francisco at large. “What we’ve seen contemporary art be able to do in so many cities and neighborhoods [is] drive traffic and have economic impact,” she said, “because people come to an arts organization and they go get a meal, and they go get a drink.”

While the Trump Organization does not have decision-making power related to property, it has profited greatly from its partnership with Vornado. In 2021, Bloomberg reported that the former president was positioned to share a windfall of around $617 million after a bond sale to refinance 555 California St.

Largely funded by Silicon Valley tech money, ICA San Francisco set forth a bold mission to promote “constant reinvention in the realm of contemporary art” — and, just as importantly, to make that experimental work accessible to all. In the two years since its launch, the museum has largely made good on those promises, hosting eight high-profile exhibitions, all with free admission, plus dozens of additional pop-ups and educational programs.

During its time in the Dogpatch, the ICA hosted exhibitions spotlighting both prominent international artists and up-and-coming locals. One installation featured hand-sewn banners inspired by traditional tattoo designs; another asserted Black women’s right to rest and leisure. The museum also contributed to the once mostly industrial area’s burgeoning identity as the city’s “artsiest neighborhood.”

The ICA will launch its new Financial District space with three openings: The Poetics of Dimensions, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah; Maryam Yousif: Riverbend, a ceramics exhibition that references Mesopotamian and Assyrian mythology and Iraqi pop culture; and a solo presentation by New York artist Kathleen Ryan.