![]() ![]() The viewpoint clearly comes into focus in the Spielberg Family Gallery’s show, Stories of Cinema 1. Such grassroots social movements as #OscarsSoWhite, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter also intensified the museum’s inclusive focus. Boyle conjured for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller North by Northwest (that is, after he rappelled down the outdoor sculpture), inaugurates the space as one of four “ongoing” exhibits.ĭefining all aspects of the museum’s curation is an egalitarian perspective recognizing people of color and women (which is now standard at all major cultural institutions). The iconic Mount Rushmore backdrop that Robert F. The museum’s exhibition Backdrop: An Invisible Art - on view within the Saban Building’s double-height Hurd Gallery through October 2022 - showcases another piece of monumental historic film scenery. It feels as though the sphere’s dome roof, which was constructed from steel and glass (like the “skyway” pedestrian bridges connecting it to the Saban Building gallery complex), functions like a gigantic, open-air exhibition vitrine, allowing visitors to frame the movie scenes which, captured amid this storied locality, inevitably come to mind while drinking it in. But enjoying the dramatic vista, within a film museum’s context, delivers a powerful charge. ![]() The observatory deck was made for photo ops. The Dolby Family Terrace atop the Sphere Building Iwan Baan/©Iwan Baan Studios, Courtesy Academy Museum Foundation Atop the sphere, the Dolby Family Terrace offers a panoramic view stretching from Westwood to the Hollywood Sign by way of Beverly Hills. Inside the sphere, the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater brings new meaning to the term “movie palace,” with its state-of-the-art projection facilities and glamorous lipstick-red color scheme. However, the exterior of this awe-inspiring structure brings to mind the otherworldly brutalist elegance that legendary production designer Ken Adam conjured for the all-time great 007 films like 1967’s You Only Live Twice. The monolithic Sphere Building - around which the museum’s campus revolves - acquired the nickname the “Death Star” (that’s the superweapon from Star Wars) amid construction. 30 at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, was worth waiting for. The hirings, firings and an ultimate relocation to the Miracle Mile area were complete with plot twists redolent of a Robert Towne screenplay.Ĭonstructed over six years, beginning in 2015, by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, together with his Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Gensler, as executive architect - as well as innumerable world-class specialists of all manner to get the look and the mind-boggling technical craft involved in running the place exactly right - the new Academy Museum has outpriced any blockbuster ever made in Hollywood. Locations, architects and curators came and went. Photos by Iwan Baan/©Iwan Baan Studios, Courtesy Academy Museum FoundationĪcademy Museum of Motion Pictures.Bill Butler, Cinematographer on 'Jaws', Dies at 101ĭiscussion of Debbie Reynolds’ suggestion of subsidizing the display of her vast collection of Old Hollywood memorabilia (which she acquired at the 1970 auction of seven MGM soundstages), planted the seed and prompted the hiring of Academy Museum staff in 2004 for a building that would have risen in Hollywood. Extensive supports and birdcage scaffolding held the structure in place until the final piece of glass was locked together like the keystone of an arch.Īcademy Museum of Motion Pictures. Perched atop the sphere, a glass-enclosed terrace and exhibition space invites the public to enjoy spectacular panoramic views, providing a unique and memorable visitor experience. Tethered to the museum by three bridges, a 60,000 sqft precast concrete and glass sphere houses the state-of-the-art, 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater that floats above an active plaza on a series of base isolator piers. The interior of the building was retrofitted, and a glass curtain wall replaced the north façade of the Saban Building. Keeping the original character of the former department store’s Wilshire façade, the team sourced new limestone from where the original stone was quarried, as well as rehabilitated the black granite, gold tile and bronze doors. The team restored and transformed the historical 1939 May Company Building, renamed the Saban Building, which encompasses more than 50,000 sqft of gallery and exhibition space, event venues, restaurant and retail space, education labs, offices, conservation facilities, and the 300 seat Ted Mann Theater. Designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop in collaboration with Gensler, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the world’s premier institution dedicated to the art and science of filmmaking. ![]()
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