The genesis of this work will remain unique for many reasons, the most important being that it will always couple the name of Snøhetta with that of Mario Botta and the contemporary architecture of constructing sculpturally with the emotions with the canons of Post Modern classicism. A granitic Alpine personality and a sunny Nordic one. The SFMoMA will always be this and can never be read without the dichotomy from which it originated.
The fact remains that San Francisco is experiencing a period of great urban reassertion and needs to let people get on with it and allow architecture to express itself and build the city a new identity. To achieve this, it allows (architecture) to surprise, not necessarily be popular and sometimes even to be strange – but always stimulating. The new SFMoMA climbs onto the roofs and shouts out its sensational identity, not wanting to be dependent on anyone.
Perhaps the real legacy Snøhetta has delivered to San Francisco lies in the debate started on art, the city and the role of architecture.