Musings in Plan

This is the main street level I am working on right now- to start to analyze how the entrance demarcates itself to the plaza and how the interior courtyard is programmed. The temporary gallery is framed time and time again by the other museum buildings and the materiality of the framed volume against the other musuem volumes will heighten this contrast.

I want to use the structures f the looming condos and the permananent galleries and admin of the museum to create a relationship to each other whilst accentuating the more spontaneous nature of the corridor of space in between these volumes... terminating at one end with the projection screen and at the other, a framed view of the "temporary exhibition" building. I thought about having a hanging garden of sculpture too in this corridor or even the possibility of a circus school as extra program with tight rope walkers the length of the corridor.

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I started to work out what is happening one level under street-level. Essentially, placing the orange lounge makes sense because thsi program is active by night and need no daylighting. The glow of light coming from below will serve as an attraction and hidden gem to the plaza- and there should be light emananating above through the open patio and sunken courtyard. It also makes sense because it locates the orange lounge and bar close to the parking with valet and facilitates coming to the bar after the museum has closed. I started to think that perhaps having a darkroom photo studio or public gallery space close to the orange lounge would be a good idea too when I recall the vernissages I have been to in Toronto and Montreal and how they are really thrown as a big party and add to the lounge atmosphere as well as how they reinforce the "comtemporaryness" I am trying to build in corridor between buildings.



I thought about connecting the temporary exhibition to the permenant exhibition on the top level so that visitors who paid for the temp exhibition could travel back through the rest of the museum collection or leave directly too.



This was purely to help me start considering the heights of things.

Approximate Scheme in Plan

Of course I need to massage the volume sizes and materiality plays a big role, but this sketch gives a sense of how I envision the buildings coming together. Freight and delivery happen at the south end, the North Western corner is access to the lobby where ticket sales happen in the service block as well as public restrooms and coat check. There is s selection between the temporary exhibition and the permanent exhibition- though the temporary exhibition will catwalk into the permanent on the way out. Gift shop is under the temporary exhibition. Admin is located near the freight elevator. Parking all happens below grade and directly into western condos or north/west corner into lobby.

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These images are essentially investigating into the structures of the museum. Obviously the materialities of the various building volumes are crucial and deciding the heights of interior museum space. Right now, I making the main museum block's western facade (to the centre of performing arts) of mostly frosted glass windows, floor to ceiling in all galleries with moments of clear glass framing small views into the gallery to the public. The exterior condo facade to the street (east) then would be of a similar language but with bigger aperatures. The two interior facades facing one another need to I think have a skinning or cladding- which continues to allow in light. I think wood screens might even contrast well against the hyper colours of the temporary exhbition building volumes... more working out is necesary however.

I decided that the laid condo tower couldn't be placed on the permanent museum space-- it was too imposing and the "permanent" program had to be broken up. This series shows how they could be propped in the air and their structure filter people into the museum lobby from the Avenue of the Arts. I started playing with the structural members supporting both the gallery spaces and the condos- if they are of the same steel support language that they can best define the negative space of the lobby/ event space in between that links the four building together.

The relationship of these two volumes- one higher and one lower- recreate one my earlier design schemes. If the two structures were joined together at varying heights they could support other volumes like that of the temporary exhbition box and energize the museum interior courtyard overhead.

Design Development Musings

Artists:

Lenses of the world
Unknown to some
They might know society’s worst fears -
hunger, poverty, social injustice-
intimately.
They confront these.
Gather inspiration from personal experience.
Express and embody these ideas—
creatively, passionately, physically.
Embed them with political insights.
Frightful social truths
yet so potent,
universal,
seminal to others who
yet do not know –
might never know,
but wish to know,
for they have an inkling
and consume with hope.

OCMCA:

This proposed museum design includes four distinct volumes.

The largest is laid horizontally along the western perimeter of the site. This is the "permanent" museum collection, as such it houses the permanent collection, and the condominium tower (as well as the administrative services on the southern end of the volume.

As such, the required heights of the gallery spaces of 18 feet inform the facade of the condo tower, where I have decided each condo will acquire its 3000 square feet within a 18 feet high volume. The lower floors (the first five) are museum and museum support space and the upper eight stories are condos. The idea is to make the condo collection part of the museum collection. For me, contemporary art is particularly smart at shedding light on the inherent politics within culture- and so I am proposing a scaffolding in which pre-fabricated condo units of 18' volume are inserted. The expected condo buyer audience is appreciative of contemporary art and thus should get excited about buying into the museum, the scaffolding structure and the pre-fab condo unit- which could even be taken away with them if ever they moved out. (My model pictures as of yet do not show the levels of condos-- I have tried 4 variations of detailing them so far at 1/32 scale and am not happy yet with the results- but the levels will sit a top of the largest, "permanent" block of the museum and frame the museum entrance under their cantilever)

The next crucial volume is the floating box on the south side of the site. It is the "temporary' exhibitions space- for the traveling shows, events and exhibitions. (It could be leasible too since I have left enough space for the temporary exhibitions to be integrated into the permenant collection building). The skin of this building is crucial-- right now I am envisioning a double skin- the exterior skin being a small pixelated silk screen adversing whatever the show is. Holding the temporary show outside of the building lets the museum showcase the newest exhibits-- presumably how the museum can generate more revenues from Californians who have already seen the rest of the museum collection a few time-- I suppose I am thinking Los Angelenos especially. The south side of this volume might also be a projection screen for events or a surface for those building climbers at museum events and gala openings.

I am also really considering how this "temporary" volume can be framed by the "permament" collection volume mostly from the western and eastern ends of the plaza. People coming or going to the Performing arts building of the Segerstrom bldg will see the "temporary' volume framed by the museum without interruption of the Serra sculpture. Only as they draw closer to the museum does the Serra sculpture come into view and it, the temporary exhibition and the volume of condos above create an entrance plaza into the lobby of the OCMCA. Approaching the building from the Eastern part of the plaza, the framing strategy still works to frame the Serra sculpture and the temporary exhibition against the permanent volume of museum.

Three building volumes are integrated into one common transparent volume on the rest of the site. (Not yet shown in pictures) The effect is like Mecanoo's School of Ecomomic in Ulright that Sheryl suggested-- Two of the three volumes pop out of the transparent casing- that of the Temporary exhibition and that of the theater, freight and delivery, curatorial, etc services (on the east side of the far south side of the site) This encasing allows the museum's ground floor to be always public and allows for the museum to operate independently. The middle volume which is the only one that does not break the encasement and is grounded would be ticket sales, coat check, public bathrooms on the north side, and restaurant service space and canteen on the south side. Eating takes place atop this level and enjoys sights into the two museum buildings within the glass atrium-encasement.

The opem interior lobby between the temporary and the services volume is large enough that it could accommodate gallery openings, dinners, other events, without interrupting the lobby and other services in the museum.

Continued with other building context--
* missing full height of museum with condos- right now I am working out the museum building relationships

Design Development

Process Ianges Since Friday at scale 1/32 in Chronological Order