LA’s Broad Museum - the animated exoskeleton!

Compiled by TeamIAnD

Photography: Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro

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The new contemporary art museum, The Broad in down town Los Angeles is a personalized experiential take away for both, the connoisseur and layperson alike!

Dubbed “the veil and the vault,” the museum’s design by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler merges the two key programs of the building: public exhibition space and the archive/storage that will support The Broad Art Foundation’s lending activities. Rather than relegate the archive/storage to secondary status, “the vault” plays a key role in shaping the museum experience from entry to exit.

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Having opened to the public on Sept. 20, 2015, the museum is home to 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is among the most prominent holdings of postwar and contemporary art worldwide. The 120,000-square-foot, $140-million building features two floors of gallery space to showcase The Broad’s comprehensive collection and will be the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library. Additionally, a 24,000-square-foot public plaza, street scape improvements and enhanced pedestrian access on and around The Broad along Grand Avenue contribute to the overall aesthetic of this prominent public space.

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Its heavy opaque mass is always in view, hovering midway in the building; its carved underside shaping public circulation routes and lobby below; its top surface - the floor of the third-floor galleries. The vault is enveloped on all sides by the “veil,” an airy, cellular exoskeleton structure that spans across the block-long gallery and provides filtered natural daylight. The museum’s “veil” lifts at the corners, welcoming visitors into an active lobby with a bookshop and espresso bar.

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The public is then drawn upwards via escalator, tunnelling through the archive, arriving onto an acre of column-free exhibition space bathed in diffuse light. This 24’ high space is fully flexible to be shaped into galleries according to curatorial needs. Departure from the exhibition space is a return trip through the vault via a winding stair that offers glimpses into the vast holdings of the collection.

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Judicious application of material like concrete, steel, fibreglass reinforced concrete, fibreglass reinforced gypsum and the like leads The Broad to target LEED Silver certification. With its electric car charging stations, bike parking spaces, rooftop drains routed to street level gardens  that filter runoff, high-efficiency plumbing fixtures that help reduce water use by 40 percent, among a host of its features, The Broad aims to be in the top tier of eco-conscious and efficient museums.