Herzog & de Meuron
Jacques Herzog is co-founder and senior partner of the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron.
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Jacques Herzog
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FROM Jacques Herzog
Design and Architecture
The Academy Museum rises The Academy Museum under construction on September 27, 2017 Photo by Avishay Artsy The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures was first dreamed of a century ago by silent film star Mary Pickford. Now the complex designed by architect Renzo Piano is under construction at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. The museum connects the retrofitted 1939 Streamline Moderne May Company Building, now the Saban Building, by two bridges to a sphere will contain an auditorium and a rooftop gathering space with a spectacular view of the Hollywood Hills. This project had spent some time in development hell, as it met with design, construction and fundraising challenges. But now the project has been boosted by a $50 million check from Haim and Cheryl Saban and the construction team, now helmed by MATT Construction, is triumphing over difficulties in building the sphere. DnA talks to Academy Museum director Kerry Brougher about making the architecture cinematic, and with Ann Gray, architect and publisher of Form magazine, about why she's thrilled with a structure she had feared was an "obnoxious iconic form." She also talks about spheres, and why they are back in style. For example, Jacques Herzog of Swiss firm Herzog and deMeuron is proposing two for the planned Berggruen Institute. Are people tired of a "jillion irregular radiuses and compound curves?"
Design and Architecture
Berggruen Institute: Herzog & de Meuron's 'secular monastery' A rendering of the Berggruen Institute in the Santa Monica Mountains Image courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron There's an ambitious plan for a site high in the Santa Monica Mountains, west of the 405 and just north of the Getty. Nicolas Berggruen, the billionaire investor and philanthropist, plans to build the Berggruen Institute , a research center and think tank devoted to governance and philosophy, designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. Renderings of the campus show three main components: an almost 100,000-square-foot institute, a one-story, long low building that is lifted off the ground and made of a raw concrete frame and roughened wood panels. Protruding above this are two large spheres, one of which will hold water. Then there's a 28,000-square-foot scholars' village of sunken, adobe-style buildings. The spheres, says Berggruen, "anchor the building but also lets you dream a little bit." Spread across the more than 400 acres of land, a one-time landfill, will be walking trails for the visiting scholars to reflect and explore the restored natural beauty. But there is already pushback against Berggruen's project from neighboring homeowner associations. DnA looks into the purpose of the institute, and how he hopes to win over skeptics of his plans with an ecological approach to the site. We also talk about the other campus Berggruen is building in MacArthur Park, designed by Spanish firm SelgasCano.
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Design and Architecture
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