Checking out the detail at the Broad museum in downtown L.A.
The circular form in the middle of the Broad museum is known as the “oculus,” but it’s also acquired all manner of unprintable nicknames. Whatever you call it, let’s hope Eli Broad is powerful enough to get that street lamp removed, because it’s kind of killing the aesthetic. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
If the honeycomb veil looks rather opaque on the front of the building, on the side it feels more dynamic -- as if asteroids were raining down on the earth. As Times critic Christopher Knight points out, however, the building’s skin is going to be hard to keep clean. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
While the exterior of the building has a hard, geometric feel, the lobby inside is more cave-like, with smooth and organic forms. Walking into the space feels like entering a cliff dwelling in some far-off mesa. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
The escalator leads from the lobby to the third floor gallery in a concrete tube. It reminds me of Disneyland’s now-defunct atomic make-out ride: Adventure Thru Inner Space. Can’t wait to ride it. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
The escalator punctures the collection storage area, which will reside on the second floor. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
The wide view of the Broad: the top-floor gallery has nearly an acre of space. It’s too early to tell how smaller art works might fare in this expanse (the partition walls haven’t been installed yet), but the geometries of the ceiling and the soft light is pretty wondrous. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
The elevator penetrates the dark cement core of the building and emerges in the light-filled, top-floor gallery. I like the earthy, undulating forms from which it emerges. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
The ceiling is irresistible (though I do wonder if it will overwhelm smaller scale art). Regardless, I have a feeling that its geometric lines will be photographed as much, if not more, than the Whitney Museum’s Marcel Breuer ceiling in New York. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
Let’s play compare and contrast: Now that you’ve seen the Broad’s lobby ceiling, here is the view Marcel Breuer concocted above the Whitney Museum’s lobby (from a pic I snapped in 2009). (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
