Supported by 130 steel shoring towers and wrapped in reinforced concrete panels, the partially built sphere designed to house the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ new 1,000-seat theater in Los Angeles looks anything but light.
But once its concrete lid is placed, the steel-and-glass dome attached, extra rebar torched and shoring cleared away, this 13,000-ton ball will appear to “float” 12 to 20 ft above an open-air piazza.