The abandoned former Birkenstock factory in Marin County and the 88.5 acres it sits on have been acquired by the heirs of design icons Charles and Ray Eames, who have plans to build a major art and design museum there that will also house the Eames Archives.

You've likely seen the striking, white, multi-peaked concrete roof of the former Birkenstock factory along the 101 freeway in Novato — which was originally built to house a distribution center for publisher McGraw Hill back in 1964. Birkenstock moved out of the 123,000-square-foot building in 2019, and now the property, which includes 88.5 acres of land and another 43,000 square feet of office space, has been purchased by the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, a nonprofit that is run in part by the granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, Llisa Demetrios, for a reported $36 million.

Demetrios resides on Eames Ranch in Sonoma County, which was established by her mother, the only child of Charles Eames and stepchild of Ray Eames, the artist and designer Lucia Eames. And currently, the Eames Archives collection is being housed in Richmond, where tours and visits are available to the public. (Though not very available, as the Chronicle notes there's a waitlist 1,000 people long.)

The Eameses are best known as the designers of midcentury furniture, in particular the Eames lounge chair (pictured above) first produced by Herman Miller in 1956. They were also fillmmakers, and the designers of buildings, toys, and an array of more utilitarian furniture like the items seen below.

"To share my grandparents’ vision with the world is the honor of a lifetime," Demetrios says in a statement about the new museum project. "Ray and Charles’ boundless curiosity for solving problems through design has been at the core of the Eames Institute’s mission, and this expansion will allow us to share those gifts with our community on an even larger scale."

The vision for the planned museum is being led by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, who designed San Francisco's deYoung Museum, with local firm EHDD serving as executive architects.

Plans for the museum include immersive art exhibitions, makerspaces and workshops, high-impact educational programming, accessible public open space, culinary and retail offerings, and space for displaying a portion of the Eames Collection and family archives, among other collections and works.

"The acquisition of the Birkenstock campus is a transformational step for the Eames Institute — the culmination of a long-held dream and our deep commitment to the North Bay community," says John Cary, President & CEO of the Eames Institute, in a statement. "This extraordinary space will enable us to expand our programming and reach a broader audience, while serving as a permanent anchor for creativity and innovation in the Bay Area. We’re immensely grateful for the support that has brought us to this moment, and eager to bring this to life in partnership with the City of Novato."

The Eames Institute was established in 2019 and only launched publicly in 2022. It is separate from the Eames Foundation, which also oversees the preservation of Charles and Ray Eames's famed Case Study House #8 in Pacific Palisades, in Los Angeles. Until recently, the Eames House, as it's locally known, was the main design landmark associated with the couple, until the Archives, based in Richmond, were opened to the public in February 2024.

The institute also now owns San Francisco-based William Stout Architectural Books.

The debut of the Novato museum, which still does not have an official name, will mark the most significant publicly accessible design mecca for all things Eames, with an opening date to be in announced in the coming years.

Calling the news about the museum "incredibly exciting, David C. Howse, the president of California College of the Arts, says, "The Eames legacy is a cultural treasure, and the Institute’s new campus will be a platform to share this more broadly than ever before."

An exhibit of the Eameses' later furniture designs is currently on view at the Transamerica complex in downtown San Francisco. It's open daily from 10 am to 5 pm at the Transamerica Pyramid Annex Gallery, 535 Washington Street.