Museum Launches Expansion : Art: San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art will add gallery space and a cafe as well as renovate existing space.

After a decade of planning and fund-raising, work is finally set to begin on the most ambitious renovation and expansion project in the 53-year history of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego.

“It’s been a long time coming,” said museum director Hugh M. Davies just moments before Thursday’s symbolic groundbreaking at the museum on Prospect Street in La Jolla.

When the $8.3-million project is finished in early 1996, the museum will enjoy an additional 4,500 square feet of gallery space.

Also, a cafe is being added, the museum bookstore expanded, air-conditioning and acoustical improvements are being made to the 499-seat Sherwood Auditorium, and a new facade will recall the 1916-vintage home of philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps that was the original museum.

“I’m confident that this building will become a landmark in San Diego and a magnet for architectural aficionados,” Davies said.

Architects for the project are Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates of Philadelphia, one of the world’s leading architectural design and planning firms. Robert Venturi has taught at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, received the Rome Prize in architecture, and in 1991 received architecture’s highest international honor, the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

The goal of the project, Venturi told reporters Thursday, is to make the museum compatible with the streets of La Jolla to the east and the ocean vistas to the west.

“The building must be a background for the art,” he said, “and it must not intrude on the art.”

Because of La Jolla’s 30-foot height limit, the museum is blocked from adding stories and will instead expand horizontally. The original museum was the work of architect Irving Gill, a seminal figure in California architecture whose works dot San Diego.

The museum’s current 10,500 square feet of gallery space is closed for the duration of construction, although a 6,000-square-foot satellite facility in downtown San Diego remains open. The downtown center is now hosting a show by British sculptor David Nash.

The museum, formerly the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, juggles a permanent collection of 3,000 works of art with traveling shows and exhibitions, as well as performance art, music and literary events.

When the museum reopens, the first show will feature the works of the late Los Angeles artist John Altoon.

The expansion, said associate director Charles E. Castle, “will allow our patrons to continue to get to know their old friends in our permanent collection over the years, plus continue to be exposed to new artists.”

Davies, who became director in 1983, said the project was slowed by the intricacies of getting building permits in San Diego and also the difficulty of fund-raising in a slow economy.

The expansion and renovation is part of an overall $10.5-million capital campaign that also includes establishing a permanent facility in downtown San Diego. The fund- raising effort is within 10% of the goal, Davies said.