CASE

STUDY

BROAD
MUSEUM

LOSANGELES,CALIFORNIA
BY
M. MOHAMMED AFREED
BROAD MUSEUM
◦ Architects: Diller Scofidio + Renfro
◦ Area: 120000 ft²
◦ Year: 2015
◦ Total Cost:$140 million
◦ Location : South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, California, United States
◦ Lighting Design: Tillotson Design Associates
◦ The Broad is a new contemporary art museum built by philanthropists Eli
and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles
◦ The Broad makes its collection of contemporary art from the 1950s
SITE & SURROUNDING
CONCEPT SKETCH
◦ Dubbed “the veil and the vault,” the museum’s design merges the
two key programs of the building: public exhibition space and
the storage
◦ “the vault” plays a key role in shaping the museum experience
from entry to exit.
PLANNING AREA AND SPACES
◦ The building provides 50,000ft² of gallery space

and 21,000ft² of climate-controlled archive

storage space

1. 81

2. 1467

3. 2916 , 3*)
32805

4. 171

5. 99

6. 108

7. 1620

8. 287

9. 541

10. 360
GROUND FLOOR PLAN

3) 2916 ◦ 9) 541

◦ 2) 1467
◦ 1) ◦ 1) 81
81
CIRCULATION
LEGEND
Primary access
Secondary access
FIRST FLOOR PLAN CIRCULATION
LEGEND
Primary access
Secondary access
◦ 8) 287 ◦ 10) 360

◦ 7) 1620

◦ 6) 108

◦ 5) 99
◦ 4) 171
SECOND FLOOR PLAN

3*) 32805
SECTION { EAST WEST }
SECTION
FIRST FLOOR

o Two street-level entrances on Grand Avenue , that features a public lobby with a bookshop and espresso bar, a museum shop, a 15,000ft² gallery for special exhibitions, a multimedia space

and an archive storage facility

SECOND FLOOR

o The second floor houses an archive storage facility, museum offices, conference rooms and a lecture hall for 200 people.
o Collection storage visible to museum visitors through windows in a central stairwell leading from the third-floor galleries down to the first-floor lobby, administrative staff
offices, flexible programming space
THIRD FLOOR

ESCALATOR

o The third floor is exclusively reserved for the column-free gallery covering a floor space of
35,000ft² and roofed 23ft-high. The floor receives ample natural lighting from 318 skylights and
windows.

PARKING GARAGE
o A 105ft escalator and a circular glass lift connect the
first floor to the third-floor gallery, and stairs connect
all three floors

o 155,000-square-foot, three-story subterranean parking garage - 364 parking spaces

WHAT IS THE BROAD MUSEUM MADE OF?
The veil is made primarily of 2,500 glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels and 650 tons of steel.
DETAILS OF THE BUILDING’S VEIL
◦ The veil is supported at three points: 2nd Street, General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way and the main 32t, 57ft-long
touchdown beam on Grand Avenue laid 5ft below the pavement, which can handle loads of up to 3,000t.

Veil is lifted at corners for entry

DETAILS OF THE
BUILDING’S VEIL
◦A porous, honeycomb-style, exterior
structure wraps the building on all sides and
provides filtered natural daylight within the
building’s galleries and public buildings.
THE VAULT
◦ 36 million pounds of concrete
◦ 50,000-square-feet of gallery space including 35,000-square-feet of column-free space on the third floor and 15,000-square-feet of
gallery space on the first floor
◦ 21,000-square-feet of collection storage space
◦ The second floor concrete slab cantilevers 45-feet over the lobby

GALLERY ACCESS PENETRATES

VAULT
Daylight Gallery

Control Light Vault

Sidelight Entry

Parking
Stairs, Elevator, & Escalator meet in center of gallery
Concept : movable walls subdivide
 Daylight fixtures face true north

the sunlight gets filtered and enters the gallery making it feel somewhat cool
Gallery is top lighted and side lighted
Side lighted conference room on 2ndfloor
Public amenities associated with The Broad include an adjacent 24,000-square-foot public plaza, a new
restaurant developed by Sprout LA and Chef Timothy Hollingsworth, a new mid-block traffic signal and
crosswalk connecting The Broad and public plaza with MOCA and the Colburn School and additional
streetscape improvements.
INTERIOR VIEWS
EXIHIBITS The Broad houses a 2,000-piece personal collection of postwar and contemporary art by the likes of Jean-Michel Basquiat ,
Jasper Johns, Yayoi Kusama , Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons
 INFERENCE

• How to design a long span structure ( column free gallery space )

• How to design a multi use space by giving movable partitions
• How to design a parametric model with specific material
• Design of concrete vault
• Learnt how to utilize site to full extent and to tackle space
constraints