Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
Belzberg Architects

Photo courtesy Belzberg Architects

The museum emerges from the landscape as a single, curving concrete wall that splits and carves into the ground to form the entry.

The new Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMH) is located within a public park, adjacent to the existing Los Angeles Holocaust Memorial. 

The building is submerged into the ground allowing the park's landscape to continue over the roof of the structure.  Existing park pathways are used as connective elements to integrate the pedestrian flow of the park with the new circulation for museum visitors.


Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

The pathways are morphed onto the building and appropriated as surface patterning.  The patterning continues above the museum's galleries, further connecting the park's landscape and pedestrian paths.

The approach is pervaded by sounds and sights of people in the park. Because the building is partially submerged beneath the grassy, park landscape, entry to the building entails a gradual deterioration of this visual and auditory connection to the park while descending a long ramp.


Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

Upon entering, visitors experience the culmination of their transition from a playful and unrestrained, public park atmosphere to a series of isolated spaces saturated with photographic archival imagery. 


Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

The experience of the building is largely dictated by the timeline of a visitor's passage from point of arrival through to his/her ascension back to park level from the underground exhibit spaces.

Visitors exit the museum by ascending stairs to the level of the black stone pillars, regaining the visual and auditory connection with the park environs.


Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo © Iwan Baan

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

Photo: arcspace

By maintaining the material pallet of the park and extending it onto the museum, the hues and textures of concrete and vegetation blend with the existing material palette of Pan Pacific Park.  These simple moves create a distinctive facade for the museum while maintaining the parks topography and landscape. 

Designed and constructed with sustainable systems and materials, the LAMOTH building is on track to receive a LEED Gold Certification from the US Green Building Council.


Drawing courtesy Belzberg ArchitectsGallery Level Plan

Drawing courtesy Belzberg ArchitectsRoof Plan

Drawing courtesy Belzberg ArchitectsAxonomatric