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RICHARD MEIER & PARTNERS

The Museum of Television and Radio

Beverly Hills

Richard Meier & Partners has designed the new west coast facility of the Museum of Television and Radio, a major renovation of a two-story building that is located at the prominent southwest corner of the intersection of Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills.

The new facility includes a library and private consoles for studying the Museum's program collection, plus facilities for exhibitions, screenings, seminars, festivals, education classes, receptions, and other events.

The building design, which is site- and program-responsive, takes advantage of its corner location with two largely transparent facades that offer views from the street and sidewalk into the Lobby and Gallery exhibition areas. The Beverly Drive facades steps back in layers of glass, metal and stone to create a public forecourt which responds to the active intersection.

The palette of materials supports a formal vocabulary that explores building component weight and mass through proportion, color and texture. The result is a well-grounded composition with carefully balanced, weighed and transparent components providing a harmonious relationship between the street and Museum interiors.

From the Beverly Drive entry, the visitor enters a rotunda lobby - the radiant center of the project - which provides access to the Gallery, Theater, and Radio Listening Room on the Ground Floor Level. Skylights and expanses of glass create an open and vibrant, user - friendly environment for public circulation. A sweeping ramp provides access to the second floor Video Console Rooms providing public access to the Museum's collection of historical videotapes. The ramp also activates and animates the east and north elevations of the building and provides the visitor informative views into the Gallery and Exhibition areas.

The existing below - grade parking and structural frame of the building has been retained and upgraded to support new space at the Ground and Second Floors, as well as a Roof Garden and Conference areas on the Third Floor Mezzanine.