Posted on by Rodeo Realty Media Team

New renderings of the Academy of Motion Pictures released

The film academy on Wednesday drummed up excitement for its forthcoming museum on the Miracle Mile, releasing a batch of new renderings, giving the press a tour of the construction site next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and announcing a $50 million donation from philanthropists Cheryl and Haim Saban.

That donation brings the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences close to three-quarters of its new fundraising goal of $388 million. In honor of the Sabans, the museum’s main building—the old May Company at Fairfax and Wilshire—will be renamed in their honor.

Pritzker-Prize winner Renzo Piano and architecture firm Gensler are restoring and reworking the Streamline Moderne-style department store built in 1939 to house a 288-seat cinematheque and spaces for exhibitions, an entire floor devoted to an “Oscars experience,” restaurants, and special events.

The Saban Building will connect via three glass bridges to an eye-catching, 130-foot tall sphere, the bottom of which will hop be encased in panels of precast concrete and house a swanky theater. The top will be sheathed in glass and serve as an observation deck looking out over the Hollywood Hills.

When it opens in 2019, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will finally give Los Angeles a permanent museum to celebrate and explore the history and art of films and filmmaking. The collection includes millions of photographs and hundreds of thousands of films, screenplays, posters, and production and costume design drawings.

Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucas Film, said Wednesday that it was unbelievable that Los Angeles doesn’t already have a motion picture museum.

“We should have the world’s most preeminent motion picture museum, and now we have the opportunity to have that,” she said.

For the new renderings, scroll down.

The lobby of the former May Company, now called the Saban Building.
The sphere and Saban building, seen from the north. From some angles, the sphere appears to float, but it will be anchored to the ground via four concrete columns. (The columns will be attached to base isolators “as big as cars” that will allow the structure to move two feet in each direction during earthquakes). The antenna is a weathervane that’s more sculptural than functional.
Joseph Stefano used this typewriter will writing the screenplay forPsycho. | Joshua White
The ruby slippers used for close-up shots in The Wizard of Oz. Exhibition Curator Doris Berger says they’re the best preserved pair of slippers worn by Judy Garland in the movie. | Joshua White
The 1,000-seat theater at the lower level of the sphere will be used for premieres and special events.
The museum, seen from Fairfax, showing the profile of the sphere and adjoining May Company building.
Gold leafed tile from the original Italian manufacturer will be used to restore the old May Company’s iconic cylinder.
The Dolby Terrace at the top of the sphere—covered in 700,000 pounds of glass and steel—will offer sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills and Hollywood Sign.
A construction photo taken from the upper floor of the Saban Building, looking out at the future site of the sphere and over the hills. | Joshua White
The Academy Museum campus will flow into LACMA and the La Brea Tar Pits, with the Petersen Automotive Museum across the street.

Story courtesy of Curbed. 

Proudly powered by WordPress