FEATURE
THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE
Show Business DIVE INTO FILM HISTORY AT THE ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES JUST AHEAD OF THE 94THTH ACADEMY AWARDS. BY LAURA SCHREFFLER
AS THE 94TH ACADEMY AWARDS ON MARCH 27th
approach, a visit to the recently opened Academy Museum of Motion Pictures should be as big a priority as getting redcarpet ready for Hollywood’s biggest evening, and here’s why: This museum is, in fact, a love letter to Hollywood itself, and one with a $462 million price tag to boot. Designed by Pritzker Prize—winning architect Renzo Piano, this LEED Gold-certified building is now the largest museum in the United States specifically devoted to the arts and sciences of moviemaking, one that makes sure to tell all the stories of Tinseltown’s history — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Piano, in collaboration with Gensler as executive architect, has actually created the 300,000-squarefoot building by combining two contrasting structures: 24 HAUTE LIVING hauteliving.com
the renovated and expanded May Company building — a 1939 landmark now called the Saban Building in honor of benefactors Cheryl and Haim Saban — and a soaring glass and concrete sphere housing the Fairfax Avenue entrance and the Sidney Poitier Grand Lobby, exhibition galleries, the 288-seat Ted Mann Theater, The Shirley Temple Education Studio, the Debbie Reynolds Conservation Studio, and a store carrying exclusive film and Oscars memorabilia. This wing also houses Fanny’s, a restaurant and café named after legendary vaudeville, movie, theater, and radio star Fanny Brice. As developed by restaurateurs Bill Chait and Carl Schuster with a design by the L.A.-based firm Commune Design, the 10,000-square-foot space is a The shark from Jaws
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ACADEMY MUSEUM OF MOTION PICTURES
Renzo Piano designed this LEED Gold-certified building, the largest museum in the U.S. dedicated to the arts and sciences.
