Interior Design reports on the virtual tour of the Academy Museum in Los Angeles

“While the past year has seen mega changes in moviemaking and the ways in which we experience cinema, we still hold the art near and dear to our collective heart, especially in Los Angeles. After decades of longing and years of design and construction, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, celebrating its own, is expected to open its museum September 30. Located along Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile, the project entails total renovation of the historic May Company building with its unmistakable Streamline Moderne façade (now named the Saban Building) plus a new Sphere Building of curved concrete panels, glazing, steel, and capped with a glass dome. Connections come with pedestrian bridges at mezzanine and fifth floor levels leading to an overall area encompassing 300,000 square feet. Executed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Gensler as executive architects, Studio Pali Fekete Architects for contribution to concept design, and, for exhibition design, WHY Architecture whose founder Kulapat Yantrasast poetically comments: “I design to achieve storytelling. Cinema and good design are a way to promote empathy.” Another award-winner, actor and trustee Laura Dern helped to tell the story giving Interior Design and privileged press members a virtual tour prior to opening. […]”

-Edie Cohen