The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (AMMP) officially opened to the public on September 30, 2021, after decades "in the making" throughout the history of moving pictures -- known in their earliest days over 100 years ago as "the flickers".
A press release issued prior to the Museum's completion stated that "[t]he building's design is inspired by the museum's mission to turn the dream factory inside out and give visitors unprecedented opportunities to peer behind the screen and into the creative, collaborative world of moviemaking".
Interestingly, the 7-story part of the Museum is not a new building, but instead is a remodeling and repurposing of the building once occupied by one of Los Angeles' leading department stores, The May Company.
Heralded upon its completion in 1939 as the western gateway to the area along Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax Avenue eastward to La Brea Boulevard, known as the "Miracle Mile", the May Company building was, and still is, often referred to as Los Angeles' grandest example of Streamline Moderne architecture.
The curved Streamline Moderne golden architectural feature on the southwest corner of the building -- seen in the photo herein above -- which faces the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue at an angle, has always been evocative to many residents, including myself, of a fancy lipstick case sold in the May Company's cosmetics department for decades.
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| May Company Department Store, circa 1940s |
Over the years, however, rain, pollution, and ground movement caused by various earthquakes prevalent in the Los Angeles area resulted in extensive cracks in the building's granite and limestone. By 1992 -- the year that the May Company building was named a Los Angeles Historical Cultural Monument -- many of the immediately recognizable, iconic features of the building had become damaged or severely deteriorated.
In 1994, after having been vacant for the previous two years, the May Company building was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), located one block to the east, for use as additional exhibition space called "LACMA West". The May Company's display windows along Wilshire Boulevard were used for huge posters promoting LACMA's current and upcoming special exhibits.
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| Adaptive Use of the May Company Building as LACMA West, circa 2000 |
The building remained LACMA West for the next 20 years until 2014, when the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures signed a lease costing $36.1-million for the next 55-years for both the May Company building as well as its adjacent parking lot to be developed into museum and theatre space. The May Company Building was renamed the Saban Building in recognition of philanthropist Cheryl Saban and entertainment executive Haim Saban's $50-million donation to the Academy Museum in 2017.
DESIGN
The Academy Museum hired Pritzker Prize-winning and world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, who has also designed the Piano Pavilion at the Kimbell Art Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas, the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Auditorium of the Parco della Musica in Rome, Italy, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion -- the latter two structures which coincidentally happen to be located on Wilshire Boulevard just one short block east from the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, as can be seen in the photograph below.
REPAIR, RESTORATION AND REPURPOSING PROCESS
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| David Geffen Theatre |
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| Ted Mann Theatre |
With the opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, another world-class museum joins the nearby Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Petersen Automotive Museum in this area along Wilshire Boulevard known for decades as the Miracle Mile, but which now more accurately might be called the "Museum Mile".
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| Side view of the completed AMMP along Fairfax Avenue, including a view at the extreme right of this photo of the front and side of the Petersen Automotive Museum located across the street from the AMMP on Wilshire Boulevard. |
AUTHOR'S NOTE: The new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, along with the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Petersen Automotive Museum, are included in our "Los Angeles Architecture -- An Eclectic Landscape"© custom-designed heritage and cultural escorted group tour Itinerary. For more information about this unique and comprehensive heritage and cultural group tour covering L.A.'s architectural history from "early settlement to the present", visit us at http://www.snobbytours.com/EclecticLAarchitecture.html
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(Primary and Photographic Sources: academymuseum.org; oscars.org; dezeen.com; structureanddesignzim.com; Fisher Marantz Stone; Los Angeles Times; Variety discoverlosangeles.com; interiordesign.net; thewrap.com; Los Angeles Magazine; archpaper.com; architecturalrecord.com; Architectural Digest; objectsmag.it; The Post Internazionale)
