The Broad is a museum of modern and contemporary art in Downtown Los Angeles; opened on September 20, 2015, the museum is housed in an iconic building designed by New York-based design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
The 120,000-square-foot building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an almost perfect box, enclosed by a light-transmitting perforated envelope, popularly known as “the veil”.
The Broad Museum is located next to Walt Disney Concert Hall and close to the MOCA, with which it constitutes a remarkable ensemble of cultural institutions in Downtown L.A.
Above: a view of The Broad from Grand Ave.; photo by Mike Kelley, courtesy of The Broad
What to see at The Broad?
The museum’s collection, created by American philanthropists Eli and Edithe Broad, comprises over 2,000 pieces by American and European 20th and 21st-century artists including Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Juan Miró, Henry Moore, Jasper Johns, John Baldessari, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Joseph Beuys, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons, Richard Serra, Damien Hirst, Christopher Wool, Ellsworth Kelly, Cy Twombly, Yayoi Kusama, Andreas Gursky, and Jeff Wall, to a name just a few.
Program of events and visitor facilities
The Broad Art Museum contains temporary exhibition spaces, a multimedia space, a shop, educational and lecture rooms, a restaurant, and a public plaza with a garden planted with olive trees.
The museum’s program of events and activities includes special exhibitions, film screenings, concerts, live performances, workshops, and talks.
Jeff Koons, Tulips, 1995-2004, mirror-polished stainless steel with transparent color coating; permanent collection of The Broad; photo by Lisa’s Point of View (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Los Angeles | The Broad Museum by Diller, Scofidio+Renfro
The Broad, a new contemporary art museum envisioned by Eli and Edythe Broad, opened on September 20, 2015, at an exceptional location on Los Angeles’ Grand Avenue, close to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
The Broad with the Walt Disney Concert Hall on the right; photo by Maciek Lulko (CC BY-NC 2.0).
The Walt Disney Concert Hall, seen from The Broad; photo Travis Wise (CC BY 2.0).
Eli and Edythe Broad perfectly embody the meaning of the term “philanthropist”. They have supported and fostered education, scientific and medical research, and civic initiatives for over fifty years. Yet, art has always had a special attraction for them, they have assembled two of the world’s most important private collections of contemporary art, and helped develop institutions such as MOMA in New York; in Los Angeles, MOCA, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Broad Art Center at UCLA; and created the recently opened Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University.
Nevertheless, a proper home was needed for the impressive and still growing collection of post-war and contemporary art of the Broad Art Foundation, comprising more than 2,000 works, including masterpieces by some of the most renowned artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Broad is the brand-new home for the collection.
Photo by Mike Kelley, courtesy of The Broad.
Close-up view of the southeast facade of The Broad; photo Thomas Hawk (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Architecture
The museum’s building was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, employing a unique concept, called “the veil and the vault”.
The vault is a “cavernous” space that accommodates the artworks storage, laboratories, and curatorial offices; unlike many other museums, this area is not secluded from the visitor’s view; it fills the middle of the building, almost “floating” over the lobby level underneath.
The museum’s lobby, photo by Mike Kelley, courtesy of The Broad.
After passing through the entrance area, visitors reach the impressive column-free exhibition gallery on the top floor by traversing through the concrete vault on a long escalator.
Emerging in the exhibition gallery, another key element of the building can be fully appreciated; it’s The Veil, a translucent envelope, or “porous exoskeleton” as DS+R calls it, which wraps the entire building, filtering and transmitting daylight to the indoor space. This skin consists of 2,500 rhomboidal panels, molded of fiberglass-reinforced concrete, and supported by a steel substructure.
The Broad’s central stair winds through the museum’s “vault”; photo by Mike Kelley courtesy of The Broad.
The Broad’s plaza
Just outside the building, Diller Scofidio + Renfro created a new outdoor public space, with a restaurant and a public garden, bordered by an exceptional grove of 100-year-old olive trees.
Photo by Maciek Lulko (CC BY-NC 2.0).