The first phase of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s transformation was unveiled in March 2008 with the opening of the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum, or BCAM. Located in Los Angeles, the building was designed by world-renowned architect Renzo Piano of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Genova, Italy, and is clad in Italian travertine with red accents. The three-story, 72,000-square foot (6,689-m2) structure offers one of the nation’s largest column-free gallery spaces.
The museum houses an art collection exclusively from 1945 to the present that is displayed in natural, ambient light. The building features a glass ceiling composed of two vaulted skylights from Super Sky Products Inc., Mequon, Wis., and finished by Wausau, Wis.-based Linetec.”
The skylights were designed to fit around an unusual structure with minimal, visual impact,” said Curtis Groeschel, project manager at Super Sky. “The end result is a very clean interior appearance, more like a glass ceiling than a skylight.”
According to Piano: “If you are designing a museum you offer contemplation. It is not enough for the light to be perfect. You also need calm, serenity and even a voluptuous quality linked to contemplation of the work of art.”
Groeschel noted that each skylight measured 74 by 116 2/3 feet (23 by 36 m). “Within the skylights, oversized lites of Viracon’s fritted, low-iron glass slope into specially welded, stainless-steel gutters that are concealed in the building’s walls.” Viracon is based in Owatonna, Minn.
“The system itself was hung from an exterior, steel truss system with tension rods and stabilized laterally with stainless-steel cables,” Groeschel continued. “The east/west cables arched gently above the glass surface, while the north/south cables were concealed inside the skylights’ frame, below the glass. The cables and rods were connected at nodes.
The skylights’ frame was notched and fitted to drain water around the node and carry it to the gutter.” The skylights’ frame also supports the interior sprinkler system and conceals track lighting in addition to the exterior water management. Linetec painted the interior and exterior aluminum framing in Super Pure White 70 percent PVDF coating for a clean, bright and durable finish.
Located on a 20-acre (8-hectare) campus, the architect and construction team sought to unify the new BCAM building with the other structures, connective walkways, grand stairways, open plazas, sculpture gardens and public art spaces. The new museum is a part of a multiphased, multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Design architect Renzo Piano Building Workshop led all of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s transformative phases. Gensler, Santa Monica, Calif., was the executive architect; Matt Construction Corp., Santa Fe Springs, Calif., was the general contractor; Arup North America Ltd., Los Angeles, provided structural and mechanical engineering; and KPFF, San Diego, was the civil engineer.
Linetec
Super Sky Products Inc.
Viracon Inc.
