San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Esteemed photo museum to shut its doors
Pier 24 Photography, the vast museum displaying the collection of its founder, Andy Pilara, announced late last month that it will close when its lease with the Port of San Francisco expires in July 2025.
In a statement, Pilara said the Pilara Foundation, which built out the abandoned pier near the Bay Bridge and opened as a quiet haven for the photographic arts in 2010, will shift its focus to organizations in the fields of health care research, arts and education. Pilara noted that the closure was precipitated by a long battle over a lease extension.
“After struggling for five years to secure a new lease with the San Francisco Port Commission ... its ultimate decision to triple our rent definitely informed our decision to close,” Pilara said in a statement. “Rather than operating with a significantly higher annual budget, we believe that money could be better utilized by local organizations.”
Port Director Elaine Forbes said in a statement that the agency had a “successful partnership with the Pilara Foundation over the years,” and that if the foundation chooses to let its lease expire, “we will be sorry to see them go and hope they continue to find ways to share their unique and inspiring collection with the public.”
Pier 24 is one of the world’s largest venues dedicated to viewing photography. Since its inception, admission has always been free to view the comprehensive collection of more than 5,000 works by 500 photographers, all purchased by the Pilara Foundation.
The gallery space is nearly 27,000 square feet, and attendance has always been by reservation and limited, to provide the viewer a serene experience
“Rather than operating with a significantly higher annual budget, we believe that money could be better utilized by local organizations.”
Andy Pilara., museum founder
while looking at the Pilara collection, along with other private collections on loan, like that of Bob and Randi Fisher.
The staff mounts only one exhibition per year, while also co-sponsoring the Larry Sultan Visiting Artist Program with the California College of the Arts. Pier 24 has also published 20 books on photography.
At the end of 2019, the Port of San Francisco served an eviction notice on the exhibition space for failure to pay $1.3 million in delinquent rent accumulated during its 10-year lease, plus two years of monthto-month extension.
Pier 24 countered that it had been inadequately credited for the $14 million cost to build out the aging wooden pier. Attempts to negotiate a settlement failed, and the issue appeared to climax when the port ordered the gallery to vacate the premises by January 2020.
A deal was eventually worked out, with terms that called for just under $93,000 in base rent, or $3.40 per square foot for the 27,311 square feet of space. Pier 24 received $5.5 million in rent credits for improvements to the pier. This breaks down to $3.19 per square foot, reducing its monthly costs to 21 cents per square foot, or $5,735 a month. The deal was for five years, backdated to the beginning of negotiations.
Part of the deal also stipulated that Pier 24 would continue its school and community outreach program. After a COVID-19 induced closure, it reopened in July 2021, with its 10th anniversary exhibition. It opened a second part of this show, titled “Looking Forward,” which will be up until the end of the year.
Nothing yet is planned to follow it, but there will be a final exhibition, said Pier 24 Director Chris McCall.
It is not yet known what will happen to the full time staff of six, or the collection or the pier that houses it on the Embarcadero.