The Broad Museum

The Broad Museum opened a month ago in downtown Los Angeles right next to Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Architects of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and Highline of New York, Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed and completed their third landmark building in the United States.

Broad Museum is probably the second most impressive building I have ever seen in Los Angeles after my first visit to Bonaventura Hotel. Los Angeles is, in general, not the best city for a certain kind of architecture.

The skin of the building is rigid, wrapping sides, even internal ceilings. The ground level of the building is reserved for public space for ticketing and gathering and the back of house spaces, which the public can not access. The upper level is entirely open to the public and is for the permanent exhibition. The archive spaces can be seen behind glass yet can not be accessed, which is quite an unusual experience for a gallery.

The ground floor has concrete organic walls and is like a cave while upstairs is well lit bright exhibition spaces.

Broad is adding value to the trending downtown life of Los Angeles. The building is not an unwelcoming giant stand-alone sculpture like its neighbor; it is surrounded by charming cafes, other museums and is pleasant to be next to it.