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The Broad, the new contemporary art museum in downtown Los Angeles, was realized by philanthropists and longtime art collectors Eli and Edythe Broad, and was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R).
It makes its home in the city’s burgeoning Grand Avenue arts corridor, across the street from architectural icons including Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art.
DS+R’s remarkable design for The Broad features public gallery spaces on the first and third floors, with a central “vault” housing collection storage and staff offices seeming to hover between. Upon entering the lobby, visitors will travel up a 105-foot escalator through the concrete vault and emerge into the third-floor gallery, which features 23-foot ceilings and 318 skylights that filter diffused sunlight.
Upon exiting the third floor, most visitors will again descend through the vault via a central stairwell, which offers glimpses of the artwork in the archive that may be displayed in future exhibitions.
Wrapped around the Grand Avenue elevation of the building, like a “veil,” is a porous exoskeleton made of concrete panels and steel.
The veil filters natural daylight into the building’s interior and establishes lines of sight between the museum and the street.
The veil lifts at the south and north corners of the building to define two street-level entrances.
Gensler served as executive architect for the museum building project.
Integral to the project is an adjacent 24,000-square-foot outdoor public plaza, also designed by DS+R, which stretches from Hope Street to Grand Avenue.
Featuring a grove of 100-year-old Barouni olive trees and a large lawn, as well as enhanced landscaping and improvements along Grand Avenue, the plaza adds a much-needed parcel of green space to the downtown cultural corridor and makes the area more pedestrian-friendly.
On its western end, the plaza will feature an adjacent restaurant that is being developed by The Broad in partnership with Bill Chait and his company Sprout.
Location: 221 S. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, Calif. 90012
Completion: 2015
Cost of Construction: 127,000,000 Euros
Design Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Executive Architects: Gensler
Contractor: MATT Construction
Consultants
Structural Engineering: Nabih Youssef Associates, Leslie E. Robertson Associates
Civil Engineering: KPFF Consulting
Engineers Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing, Fire Life-Safety, Lighting Engineers: ARUP
Lighting Design: Tillotson Design
Vertical Trasportation: Lerch Bates Associates
Collection Storage: Solomon + Bauer + Giambastiani
Security: Ducibella Venter + Santore
Waterproofing: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Graphic Design: 2x4
