Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Architect
- Arata Isozaki
- Year
- 1979
- Style
- Contemporary Modern
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
MOCA traces back to a 1979 political fundraiser at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where Mayor Tom Bradley, Councilman Joel Wachs, and philanthropist Marcia Simon Weisman found themselves at the same table and Weisman made the case for a contemporary art museum in Los Angeles. The main building on Grand Avenue in Downtown LA, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall, was designed by Arata Isozaki, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect. The museum's other original home, now called the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo, was meant only as a temporary exhibition space while the main facility was built.
the building
Two buildings, one museum. MOCA operates from two distinct spaces: the purpose-built Isozaki building on Grand Avenue and the Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo, which started life as a stopgap venue while construction proceeded and ended up staying in the collection of buildings permanently.
the style
Contemporary Modern (c. 1990–present): Today's default architecture: floor-to-ceiling glass, crisp panel facades, bold cantilevers, and mixed materials.
More on Contemporary Modernthe architect
Arata Isozaki, who designed MOCA's Grand Avenue building, is a Pritzker Prize-winning architect.
nearby
- REDCAT
- Walt Disney Concert Hall
- Million Dollar Theater Building
- Bradbury Building
- Broadway Mart Center
- The CalEdison