When The Broad opened to great fanfare in 2015, much was made of its distinctive exterior. The museum’s signature “veil” - a skin of roughly 2,500 fiberglass-reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels forming a lattice-like envelope around a concrete core ("the vault"). But while the Grand Avenue frontage remains unchanged, passersby may notice the veil lifting at the museum’s rear, where work on its expansion has exposed a portion of the structure beneath.

Crews have started stripping away dozens of the GFRC panels which line the Broad's rear frontage, which overlooks the intersection of 2nd and Hope Streets. The removal of the panels is part of a $100-million, 50,000-square-foot addition to the museum which formally broke ground in April, and will increase its total gallery space by 70 percent when completed. 

View looking southeast from Hope StreetUrbanize LA

Diller Scofidio + Renfro design flips the aesthetic of the main part of the museum, opting for an exterior of concrete. Plans also call for two open-air courtyards at the top floor, as well as space for live programming, and an art storage gallery which will allow visitors to interact with parts of the museum previously hidden away.

"Designs for the expansion preserve the ethos of the original building, taking care to activate every space, especially those transitional areas connecting galleries and floors, adding a sense of choreography, purpose, and narrative to the visitor’s journey through the art on view," states a narrative from the DS+R website.

Completion of the expansion is expected in 2028.

Exterior rendering of the existing and expanded BroadThe Broad / Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) / Plomp

The Broad, founded by the late Eli Broad and his wife Edythe, boasts a collection of more than 2,000 works of art from the 1950s through present, including pieces from Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, and Andy Warhol. General admission has been kept free of charge since the museum's debut, and will continue to be free after completion of the expansion.

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