The Broad’s concrete veil of contemporary art in Los Angeles

The Broad in downtown Los Angeles pairs a striking concrete veil with a vast contemporary art collection, creating an all-day encounter with post-war creativity.

The Broad in Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue whose most striking feature is a concrete “veil” wrapped around a central art “vault”. Anchored in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century art collected by Eli and Edythe Broad and opened to the public in September 2015, it gives downtown Los Angeles a purpose-built home for post-war and contemporary works inside a building that is itself a sculptural presence.

A honeycomb veil around a solid vault

The Broad stands at 221 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, on the same block as Walt Disney Concert Hall and opposite the Museum of Contemporary Art, forming part of the city’s cultural corridor along Grand Avenue.221 South Grand Avenue The museum was founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad as a gift to the city and opened to the public on 20 September 2015.opened on 20 September 2015

Architecturally, The Broad is defined by the contrast between its central storage “vault” and the enveloping “veil”, a porous exterior that gives the building its honeycomb-like appearance.veil and vault concept The vault houses much of the collection in controlled conditions, while the veil wraps around it and extends over the large third-floor gallery, admitting filtered daylight. At ground level the veil lifts at corners to create entrances and a lobby, so visitors move from the street directly into the building beneath its patterned skin.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s patterned concrete skin

The Broad’s building was designed by New York-based practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler as executive architect.Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler It is a three-storey museum of around 11,000 m² (120,000 ft²) with galleries above and a lobby and shop at street level.120,000-square-foot building The exterior veil is formed from thousands of fibreglass-reinforced concrete panels supported on a steel framework, creating a continuous latticed surface that covers the roof and walls while remaining permeable to light.

From Grand Avenue the museum appears as a low, box-like volume clothed in this pale, patterned shell, with the darker mass of the vault visible behind and above the lobby openings. The panels are shaped and oriented to form a repeating field across five sides of the building, and their geometric pattern continues overhead to form a ceiling for the top-floor gallery. At street level the lifted corners reveal the underside of the veil and offer views into the lobby, while escalators and stairs lead visitors up through and around the vault towards the daylit gallery level.

Post-war and contemporary art on Grand Avenue

The Broad is dedicated to post-war and contemporary art, drawing on a collection of around 2,000 works assembled by Eli and Edythe Broad over several decades.around 2,000 works The museum houses this collection and supports the Broad Art Foundation’s long-running programme of lending works to other institutions, with the vault playing a central role in that activity as both storage and a visible presence within the visitor route.Broad Art Foundation lending library

Inside, the main exhibition spaces are located on the third floor, where the veil forms a ceiling and allows controlled natural light into the gallery. Below this, circulation routes pass alongside and sometimes through the vault, giving glimpses of racks and crates that hint at the depth of the collection beyond the works on display. With its focus on late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century art and its integration into the Grand Avenue cultural cluster, The Broad has become a fixed point in Los Angeles for encountering large-scale installations, paintings and sculptures by artists from across the contemporary art world.

Visiting The Broad: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• The Broad stands on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, close to Walt Disney Concert Hall and opposite the Museum of Contemporary Art; the nearest rail hub is Union Station, from which local transport links reach the area.
• Approach to the museum from Grand Avenue is on paved city streets, with entrance routes that include escalators and staircases between the lobby and upper galleries.
• The official language is English and the currency is the United States dollar.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about The Broad

Where is The Broad located in Los Angeles?

The Broad is on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, at 221 South Grand Avenue close to Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Museum of Contemporary Art.

What can visitors expect on a visit to The Broad?

Visitors encounter post-war and contemporary artworks drawn from the Broad collection in large upper-floor galleries, with circulation routes that pass around the central art vault.

What makes The Broad distinctive among art museums?

The Broad combines a honeycomb concrete veil and visible storage vault with a substantial collection of contemporary art, giving equal emphasis to the building’s sculptural form and to the works it holds.