Next Tuesday, January 8, The Broad in Downtown Los Angeles (not that Broad Museum), Eli Broad’s new contemporary art museum with an arresting net-like “veil” facade by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, will top out at the corner of Grand Avenue and Second Street. The project is set to open next year and will contain 120,000-square-feet over three-levels, including 50,000 square feet of gallery space on two floors, a lecture hall for up to 200 people, a public lobby with display space and a museum shop.
As usual, the topping-out ceremony will include a theatrical event: in this case, the “flying of the beam,” in which a 294-foot crane lifts the final steel beam to the top of the structure. (In the meantime, take a fly-through of the new building in this video rendering.) In addition to Broad and DS+R, others on hand will be LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as well as 100 construction workers for the project. You can watch a live construction cam of the project here.
AN also learned that Related California will break ground on its new Arquitectonica-designed apartment tower on January 10, just two days after the Broad event. The 19-story building is the first major piece of the long-delayed Grand Avenue project. No more details on the event, but there are sure to be some fancy shovels and some bigwigs on hand. That’s some heavy symbolism for the transformation of downtown’s long-troubled Grand Avenue. Yes, it’s really happening.
