ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION - Los Angeles, United States

Description

Los Angeles gains a new architectural landmark: the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures now stands as a cultural highlight in the city. Operated by the American Film Academy—famous for its Oscars—the museum showcases the richness of film and cinema history across 30,000 m² of exhibition space spread over six floors. Its collection of more than 2,500 exhibits includes iconic film props, posters, photographs, scripts, historical cinematographs, and modern digital projectors.

The museum complex consists of two buildings, each expressing a distinct architectural language. The former May Company department store, built in 1939 and now fully modernised, revives an icon of early modern architecture. To the north, the “Sphere”, a contemporary concrete structure designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, houses a 1,000-seat cinema and is crowned by a rooftop terrace offering panoramic views of the Hollywood Hills and the famous Hollywood sign.

The terrace’s open space is enclosed by a 45-metre-diameter spherical glass dome, reinforced with tension cables and layered with flat, shingle-shaped overlapping panes. Eckelt Glas of Glassolutions Austria produced and supplied 3,000 m² of STADIP^® DIAMANT laminated safety glass for the project. The extra-clear float glass ensures perfect colour neutrality and exceptional transparency, seamlessly integrating into the delicate structure and enhancing the dome’s almost weightless appearance.