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.