Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The Broad Contemporary Art Museum by Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Los Angeles’s newest contemporary art museum, the Broad, sits across the street from Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Few buildings could be expected to rival the space-age angles of Gehry’s iconic 2003 structure, but the Broad certainly tries, presenting itself as a work of art on par with the contemporary masterpieces it was built to house.

Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed the 120,000-square-foot museum that is due to open on September 20th with the dominating Walt Disney Hall in mind. In contrast to Gehry’s smoothly curved titanium panels, the Broad is solidly square with an asymmetric base and a matte exoskeleton of an exterior made of fiberglass-reinforced concrete.

Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The honeycomb facade diffuses natural light inside the building and compliments the skylights on the roof while keeping the Broad’s considerable collection of post-war art safe from overexposure. The cavernous lobby, finished with undulating walls, is stark, with attention directed toward a massive escalator that takes visitors up to the third floor gallery, the museum’s main exhibition space.

Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

After tunneling through the archive and arriving onto an acre of column-free exhibition space bathed in diffused light, visitors descend through a staircase that was constructed so that works stored in the museum’s central vault can be glimpsed, a tease to inspire future visits and reveal the extent of the Broads’ collection.

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