In the foreground, models of Wilshire Boulevard Temple and the Audrey Irmas Pavilion. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and his daughter Maya address the crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony. So it will never be exactly the same in any perspective.”Īnother explanation is that if the events center wall closest to the synagogue was at a 90 degree angle, the area between the buildings - which is used for outdoor functions - would feel claustrophobic, like an alleyway. And so I think the effect will be that among a number of really stable symmetrical abstract buildings, this one will be alive if you move around it. He added, “But you see that the shape is irregular to all sides. “ We had to show some kind of deference and so that is the initial gesture,” Koolhaas explained to DnA’s Avishay Artsy, who attended the groundbreaking. The center also appears to be leaning away from the synagogue in a manner that suggests rejection of the existing building.
The skin is marked with hexagonal shapes, inlaid with rectangular windows at odd angles. Large windows look out on Wilshire Boulevard and onto the dome roof of the temple. Renderings show a three-story structure with a trapezoidal shape and a roof terrace that will be landscaped by MLA. Photo by Avishay ArtsyĮli Broad paid for a invited competition and OMA was selected in 2015. Senior Rabbi Steve Leder speaks to a crowd at the groundbreaking for the Audrey Irmas Pavilion. When it came to an addition for weddings and bar mitzvahs, conferences, staff retreats, and other events, Rabbi Steven Leder wanted a boldface name that would attract big donors.
The sanctuary of the neo-Byzantine building was restored a few years back by architect Brenda Levin.
He was runner-up for The Broad museum.īut this month he broke ground on a new events center for Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a synagogue built in 1929 by Jewish Hollywood moguls.
Yes, the firm designed the Prada store in Beverly Hills but Koolhaas won, and lost, two large commissions: the master-planning of Universal Headquarters and the expansion of LACMA. Rem Koolhaas is the cerebral Dutch architect who - with his Office for Metropolitan Architecture, or OMA - has spent several decades dazzling the world with provocative ideas and buildings.