2025 West Best Projects
Award of Merit, Cultural/Worship: Glorya Kaufman Community Center
Glorya Kaufman Community Center
Culver City, Calif.
Award of Merit
Submitted by Shawmut Design and Construction
Owner The Wende Museum
Lead Design Firm AUX Architecture
General Contractor Shawmut Design and Construction
Structural Engineer Nous Engineering
MEP Engineer AlfaTech
Owner’s Representative Gardiner & Theobald
An adaptive reuse project on the Wende Museum campus has transformed a 2,000-sq-ft abandoned MGM A-frame prop house and expansion into a vibrant cultural hub that supports the museum’s mission to bring Cold War history to life through exhibitions, education and community engagement. Set on a narrow site, the project connects the museum with the restored A-frame and a 7,500-sq-ft addition.
The new addition is made of architectural concrete, in contrast to the A-frame building’s wood, but it is uniting in appearance with the primary Wende Museum. The exposed structural concrete includes board-formed and smooth finishes. Other elements include vertical louvers, floor-to-ceiling windows, cantilevered outdoor stairs and balconies and garden landscaping.
Working on a tight site, next to the fully operational museum and in a dense residential neighborhood, communication, logistics and planning were critical to ensure work progressed while mitigating noise and disruption to daily operations. The expansion also had to connect to an adjacent parcel, which will be the location of a planned future refugee artist housing building.
With adaptive reuse at its core, the project diverted 110 metric tons of waste and cut embodied carbon by 32%.
The historic A-frame building, once used for props and sets for Gone With the Wind, saw minimal architectural alterations, although the building’s exterior is wrapped in a screen fabricated with salvaged aluminum from a nearby aerospace manufacturer.
