The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled its plans for the first major U.S. museum dedicated to the history and ongoing development of motion pictures. Designed by award-winning architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali (The Nightingale Residence), the long-awaited museum, set to open in 2016, will be located in the historic May Company Wilshire building on the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus.
The 300,000 square-foot museum will revitalize the historic building, which has been mostly vacant for nearly 20 years, with a design that “fully restores the Wilshire and Fairfax street-front facades of the 1938 Streamline Moderne building, and includes a spherical glass addition at the back of the original building.”
“The design for the museum will finally enable this wonderful building to be animated and contribute to the city after sitting empty for so long,” said Piano, the Pritzker Prize winning architect. “Our design will preserve the May Company building’s historic public profile while simultaneously signaling that the building is taking on a new life that celebrates both the industry and art form that this city created and gave to the world.”
The unveiling of the museum’s design comes as the Oscars presenter announced it has reached its initial funding goal of $100 million toward a $250 million capital campaign.
For more on the museum plans, read the press release here.
View 9312 Nightingale Drive (The Nightingale Residence), Zoltan Pali’s acclaimed residential design in the Bird Streets.
