A new cultural icon winds above Wilshire

Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Building for the Permanent Collection

California, USA

As the largest museum in the Western United States the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) attracts over 1.2 million visitors annually and houses over 130,000 works.

As part of an ambitious plan to update its east campus the museum has embarked on a $650 million project to unify the permanent collection galleries into a cohesive museum space, while opening the ground level areas to the community. Buro Happold is providing integrated engineering services for the museum, whose proposed layout requires a relaxed environmental design criteria in order to achieve a reduction in overall energy consumption.

Highly progressive water recycling program using recycled rainwater for toilet flushing, cooling towers, and irrigation

Extensive use of radiant heating and cooling to minimise energy use

Striving for LEED Gold minimum certification

Challenge

A key challenge for the team was to ensure an ideal environment for both occupant comfort as well as keeping the atmosphere stable for delicate artwork to be displayed.

Solution

The proposed curvilinear design will replace four former buildings of the original campus designed by William Pereira and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer. The plan, which calls for the demolition of the original structures, is set to include a one level sinuous building that will span Wilshire Boulevard.

The innovative design allows perimeter galleries with a flexible temperature range for occupant comfort and more stable artwork display, while more delicate art will be placed in interior galleries with tighter temperature and humidity controls.

Value

The project will also include a highly progressive water recycling program using recycled rainwater for toilet flushing, cooling towers, and irrigation. Innovative biofiltration planters will be considered for stormwater retention.

The new building will strive for LEED Gold minimum certification with ambitious net zero energy goals, an incredible achievement for a museum.