Movie museum architects chosen
Zoltan Pali and Renzo Piano will transform the old May Co. building on LACMA’S campus.
The group behind the Oscars moves ahead with plans to transform the old May Co. building at LACMA.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences searched near and far for the architect to design their long-awaited movie museum. The group wound up with two men — from both near and far.
The organization behind the annual Oscar telecast has chosen Italian-born, Pritzker Prize-winner Renzo Piano and Los Angeles native Zoltan Pali to transform the old May Co. building on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus.
According to Dawn Hudson, the academy’s chief executive, the organization chose the duo because “we actually responded to and fell in love with both architects,” she said Wednesday in a conference call with Piano and Pali.
Both architects have considerable experience working in Los Angeles.
Piano, who was awarded the Pritzker in 1998, has already remade the western half of the LACMA campus, producing a master plan and a pair of new gallery buildings, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) and the Resnick Pavilion. In addition, he is behind the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Central St. Giles Court in London, and the headquarters of the New York Times.
Pali has been responsible for the restorations of Los Angeles’ Greek Theatre, the Gibson Amphitheatre and the Pantages Theatre. He worked on the renovation and expansion of the Getty Villa museum and is design-
ing the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which will combine a restored post office in Beverly Hills with a new building and is expected to open next fall. When LACMA was planning to renovate the 1939 May Co. building, one of L.A.’s classic Art Deco landmarks, for its own use, it tapped Pali and his firm, Studio Pali Fekete Architects, to oversee the redesign.
“Renzo’s track record of creating iconic cultural landmarks combined with Zoltan’s success in transforming historically significant buildings is a perfect marriage for a museum that celebrates the history and future of the movies,” added Hudson.
The two architects have never worked together but have known each other a long time.
“Obviously, Renzo is a hero for me,” said Pali, who is currently in Genoa, Italy, with Piano working on their plans for the L.A. site. It’s an incredible honor to team up with his team.”
Both men intend to work closely together on the project’s interior design, with neither architect delineating the division of labor. “The idea is that we don’t divide the work,” said Piano. “Creativity has no limit, no boundaries.”
Pali and Piano will not design the museum exhibits; that work will be done by another firm yet to be hired.
Last year, the academy announced it was abandoning a pricey plan to build a movie museum in central Hollywood designed by French architect Christian de Portzamparc. Instead, the academy struck a deal with LACMA to lease the old May Co. building, known as LACMA West, at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue.
The academy has pledged $50 million to the project and is seeking to raise $250million. It intends to open the museum doors in late 2015 or early 2016.