Drumroll, please … SFMOMA has selected the Norwegian architecture firm of Snøhetta to design the larger-than-life museum expansion set to house the massive Fisher Collection. Initial design concepts of the team's first West Coast building in the US will be unveiled in spring 2011. The renowned firm will collaborate with a local San Francisco team to create additional gallery space in the museum's Third Street building, as well as an extension designed for Howard Street, which will connect to the back of the existing museum.

Of the decision, SFMOMA's Director Neal Benezra says, "Snøhetta's dynamic and imaginative body of work demonstrates an outstanding commitment to innovation combined with a solid track record of unique, timely, and fiscally responsible approaches to complex civic and cultural projects."

The Oslo and NYC-based firm may be best known stateside for their work on the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site. Snøhetta has also recently been commissioned to reconstruct the public spaces in and around New York City's Times Square.

Photo: Snøhetta principals Craig Dykers and Kjetil Thorsen