Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Los Angeles California, USA · 1986
Photo · Yasuhiro Ishimoto
A key precedent for Postmodern civic architecture, demonstrating how Arata Isozaki used red sandstone, geometric massing, and a sunken plaza to create a distinct urban sanctuary for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
- What we like about this project
- The barrel-vaulted skylight structure mimics industrial forms but is finished with refined green-tinted glazing bars.
Materials
- red-sandstone
- glass-block
- white-cladding-panels
- granite-pavers
- dark-metal-cladding
Visual identifiers
- red-sandstone
- barrel-vault
- sunken-plaza
- glass-block-wall
- geometric-postmodernism
Style tags
- postmodern
- geometric
- monumental
- historicist-play
Visual tags
- museum
- civic-space
- courtyard
- postmodern
- monumental
- sculpture-court
- Geometry
- An assemblage of geometric solids: a barrel-vaulted skylight sits atop a red sandstone block, which is elevated on pilotis over a lower plaza. A curved white wall sweeps in from the left, contrasting with the orthogonal grid of the background blocks.
- Facade system
- Rainscreen cladding with red sandstone panels and integrated glass block assemblies.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame with concrete shear walls and stone cladding panels.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental civic scale, with large geometric volumes towering over a pedestrian-scaled courtyard.
- Lighting
- High-contrast, direct sunlight casting deep, sharp shadows across the plaza floor and under the elevated sandstone volume.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, sun-drenched urban courtyard defined by bold geometric shadows and rich red stone textures.
- Environmental context
- An urban cultural complex situated on a sloping site, utilizing a sunken plaza to negotiate grade changes.
- Spatial experience
- The sunken plaza creates a protected, open-air courtyard below street level, framed by contrasting textures and monumental geometric forms that compress and release the sky view.
- Composition rhythm
- A dynamic balance of curved and orthogonal lines, with punched square windows contrasting against a large glass-block grid.
- Style reading
- Postmodernism
- Program
- Contemporary art museum
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- red-sandstone, glass-block, white-cladding-panels, granite-pavers, dark-metal-cladding
- Visual identifiers
- red-sandstone, barrel-vault, sunken-plaza, glass-block-wall, geometric-postmodernism
- Style tags
- postmodern, geometric, monumental, historicist-play
- Visual tags
- museum, civic-space, courtyard, postmodern, monumental, sculpture-court
- Geometry
- An assemblage of geometric solids: a barrel-vaulted skylight sits atop a red sandstone block, which is elevated on pilotis over a lower plaza. A curved white wall sweeps in from the left, contrasting with the orthogonal grid of the background blocks.
- Facade system
- Rainscreen cladding with red sandstone panels and integrated glass block assemblies.
- Structural guess
- Steel frame with concrete shear walls and stone cladding panels.
- Spatial scale
- Monumental civic scale, with large geometric volumes towering over a pedestrian-scaled courtyard.
- Lighting
- High-contrast, direct sunlight casting deep, sharp shadows across the plaza floor and under the elevated sandstone volume.
- Atmosphere
- A quiet, sun-drenched urban courtyard defined by bold geometric shadows and rich red stone textures.
- Environmental context
- An urban cultural complex situated on a sloping site, utilizing a sunken plaza to negotiate grade changes.
- Spatial experience
- The sunken plaza creates a protected, open-air courtyard below street level, framed by contrasting textures and monumental geometric forms that compress and release the sky view.
- Composition rhythm
- A dynamic balance of curved and orthogonal lines, with punched square windows contrasting against a large glass-block grid.
- Style reading
- Postmodernism
- Program
- Contemporary art museum
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture