THE NEW ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: DEDICATED TO FILMS AND FILMMAKING©

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.

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.

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.

Piano was also commissioned to design an adjoining building connected by a glass-enclosed skywalk, now called the "Sphere", a domed structure visible along Fairfax Avenue behind the Saban Building.  The Sphere houses the two screening theatres, the Geffen Theatre and the Mann Theatre, and is topped by a terrace under a curving glass roof.

REPAIR, RESTORATION AND REPURPOSING PROCESS

In February of 2015, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hired international experts from John Fidler Preservation Technology to develop and implement conservation protocols not only for rehabilitating the exterior cladding of the May Company Building for repurposing and new adaptive use as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, but also to ensure that the building retained its distinctive Art Deco architecture, its Streamline Moderne design elements, and its historical significance.

The entire renovation and adaptive use process would ultimately cost approximately  $480-million.

The original seven floors of the May Company building now house the Academy Museum’s exhibition spaces, education and special event spaces, a conservation studio, a café, and a museum store.

In addition, the Museum’s 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and 288-seat Ted Mann Theater, both located inside the Sphere, each present a year-round calendar of screenings, film series, member programs, panel discussions, family programs, and symposia.

David Geffen Theatre

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".  

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)

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