Broad Museum design unveiled (a giant perf...?)

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:50 am

Diller, Scofidio + Renfro architects call it a veil:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/ne ... 5323.story

It seems like the architects are asking the more legitimate question, "is it bold enough?"

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2 ... think.html

The location of the museum next to Gehry's Disney Center:

http://zev.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uplo ... m-5501.jpg

The artist tells the truth about Broad:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2010/ ... r_broa.php

egads · Post by **egads** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:19 am

Somehow all I can think about is the loss of cheap REDCAT parking.....

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:51 am

I hear that...

DRN · Post by **DRN** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 12:26 pm

Looks like the coming attraction for one of those old Japanese drive-in flicks with the soundtrack that is out of sync with the actors' lips....

"The Museum That Ate Los Angeles"
or
"Attack of the Killer Perfs"

Maybe it will eat the Disney Concert Hall. Well, one can hope...

Roderick Grant · Post by **Roderick Grant** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:37 pm

This is what I call "Smartass Architecture." Just because you're able to do something with your computer doesn't mean you should.

KevinW · Post by **KevinW** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:33 pm

I am not a fan of tripe as a food. or a building material.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:27 pm

Too bad -- considering that the same architects are being roundly congratulated for their relatively subtle and highly effective improvements of parts of the Lincoln Center cultural complex in New York . . .

The first of Peter's linked pieces makes clear that the design has been compromised already -- and that it may still evolve before it's done.

A recent New Yorker profile of Eli Broad (rhymes with towed) makes clear what a control freak he has been, repeatedly trading his financial support of the visual arts community with strings that place him in the (highly visible) drivers' seat.

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:35 pm

This view is perhaps a little more sympatico -- though I have no idea what part of the proposed design it might portray.

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 3:57 pm

We might want to reserve some of our judgement until we have an idea of the space within. It's maddening that there are no interior renderings which could give us an idea what the viewer might experience.

I wonder about some practical issues: how will they keep the cubicles clean with that bright white color and the infamous L.A. soot and smog, what about pigeons nesting in the handy little birdhouses? Earlier drawings showed a green roof... is that still in the mix?

Jeff Myers · Post by **Jeff Myers** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:19 pm

Hey, it takes the bulky box and modifies it with an artistic/sculptural exterior.

I am not a big fan but I like the idea.

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:49 pm

Precast concrete elements could look great when clean and new -- and dingy when stained by weather and pollutants. Eventually it would be painted, which would clean it temporarily while permanently destroying the reality of the material.

S

Deke · Post by **Deke** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:13 pm

I'm not a fan of screens in general. It's a popular trend in architecture and to me is seems like a veil covering an old hag...trying to dress up something that isn't attractive. Pugh Scarpa, a firm here in LA, does a lot of screens. They are a cheap way of dressing up otherwise boring buildings.

Deke

peterm · Post by **peterm** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:51 pm

Well, Robert Venturi coined the term "decorated shed", but maybe this is more than that.

Here's the latest leak, a drive by, fly through:

http://broadartfoundation.org/press/Bro ... hrough.mov

Intriguing and entertaining, but I'm not so sure about the escalator "colonoscopy"... Is the upper floor open to the elements, or glassed in?

The whole thing has a Saarinen TWA Terminal feel to it. The art museum as a communal gathering place to escape and take flight?

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:32 pm

Hmm -- never saw a drive-by video like that -- good idea. I'd be happier with the exterior if the envelope didn't have those two unrelated "graphic distortions" centered on the two most obvious faces. The interior is largely a mystery; is the top floor a convention/party space ? An open-air sculpture garden ? And what are the blue cubes two floors below -- art storage ? Offices ? An anachronistic super-computer ? It would have been so easy to display some visual hints . . .

Anyway, thanks for the look.

S

SDR · Post by **SDR** » Thu Jan 06, 2011 10:39 pm

From a previously-linked article:

"Lead architect Elizabeth Diller's term for it is "the veil," because it enables the museum to relate to its surroundings by providing slots through which visitors can look out on Grand Avenue, and passersby outside the museum can get glimpses of what's inside. Visitors will enter the museum at ground level, take an escalator bathed in natural light to the top-floor galleries, and return via a staircase from which they'll have views into what she has dubbed "the vault" â€” the storage facility on the first and second floor that will house all the art from the 2,000-work collection that's not on display or on loan to other museums."