The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Los Angeles, California
Award of Merit
OWNER: Paratus Group
LEAD DESIGN FIRM: Renzo Piano Building Workshop
LEAD CONTRACTOR: MATT Construction
CIVIL ENGINEER: KPFF Consulting Engineers
STRUCTURAL AND MEP ENGINEER, LIGHTING DESIGN: Buro Happold
EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: Gensler
EXHIBITION DESIGN: wHY Architecture
THEATER DESIGN: ARUP
PROJECT MANAGER: Paratus Group
This movie-making museum consists of a major renovation to a 1930’s building plus a soaring spherical addition that will house a 1,000-seat theater. The two buildings required very different structural solutions. While the existing building’s retrofit was designed to limit its movement, the 150-ft-dia theater orb can move up to 30 in. each direction during an earthquake, via eight base-isolators set 15 ft above grade and exposed as a design element. As such, building components between the two structures required flexible connections to allow one building to move and the other to stand still. For the sphere, the team was able to eliminate the lengthy process of traditional formwork and cast-in-place concrete by using a sacrificial steel skeleton to which the outer precast cladding was bolted. Then, the thick acoustic and structural wall was sprayed on the inside face of the precast panels, saving up to four months in the schedule.