Another description-defying building—which resembles a honeycomb with sharp edges—is taking shape in Los Angeles, directly across the street from the mother lode of nontraditional architecture—the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Broad, a $140-million museum for contemporary art, is nowhere near as impossible to render into a three-dimensional object as was architect Frank Gehry's exuberant music palace. Still, it is not at all simple to build, says the contractor.
Called a vault in a veil—the museum will actually store as well as display art—the 120,000-sq-ft building is extremely challenging to construct thanks to its asymmetry and its amorphous shape, says Roger Fricke, senior vice president of preconstruction for the job's general contractor, Santa Fe Springs-based MATT Construction.