The Saban Building, formerly the May Company Building, on

Wilshire Boulevard Wilshire Boulevard is a prominent boulevard in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, extending from Ocean Avenue in the city of Santa Monica east to Grand Avenue in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles. One of the principal ...

in the

Miracle Mile Miracle Mile may refer to: Places in the United States * Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, a district of Los Angeles * Miracle Mile (Coral Gables), a shopping area in Coral Gables, Florida * Miracle Mile (Manhasset), New York, a premium sho ...

district of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, is a celebrated example of

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

architecture. The building's architect Albert C. Martin, Sr., also designed the

Million Dollar Theater The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's '' The Silent Man''. It's the northernmost of the collect ...

and

Los Angeles City Hall Los Angeles City Hall, completed in 1928, is the center of the government of the city of Los Angeles, California, and houses the mayor's office and the meeting chambers and offices of the Los Angeles City Council. It is located in the Civic Cente ...

. The May Company Building is a

Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments are sites which have been designated by the Los Angeles, California, Cultural Heritage Commission as worthy of preservation based on architectural, historic and cultural criteria. History The Historic-Cult ...

. The building was operated as a May Company department store from 1939 until the store's closure in 1992, when May merged with J. W. Robinson's to form

Robinsons-May Robinsons-May was a chain of department stores operating in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, from 1993 until 2006. It was created when May Department Stores combined two of its chains, May Company California and J. W. Robinson's chains. ...

. The building has been the home of the

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is a museum in Los Angeles, California constructed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which is devoted to the history, science, and cultural impact of the film industry. It is the f ...

since 2021. The

Los Angeles Conservancy The Los Angeles Conservancy is a historic preservation organization in Los Angeles, California. It works to document, rescue and revitalize historic buildings, places and neighborhoods in the city. The Conservancy is the largest membership based ...

calls it "the grandest example of Streamline Moderne remaining in Los Angeles". It is especially noted for its gold-tiled cylindrical section that faces the intersection of

Fairfax Avenue Fairfax Avenue is a street in the north central area of the city of Los Angeles, California. It runs from La Cienega Boulevard in Culver City at its southern end to Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood on its northern end. From La Cienega Boulevard ( ...

, of which it occupies the northeast corner.

History

May Company

The May Company Building, completed in 1939, is a landmark Streamline Moderne structure. It was deemed a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1992.

LACMA West

After being vacant for two years, the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

(LACMA) acquired the building in 1994 and used it—under the name "LACMA West"—as exhibition space. In 2014, the

agreed to a 55-year lease with LACMA to include the May Company Building, as well as the adjacent land to build the David Geffen Theater.

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

The May Company Building was renamed in recognition of philanthropist

Cheryl Saban Cheryl Saban (; born April 30, 1951) is an American psychologist, author, television writer, and philanthropist. She is a former Senior Advisor to the United States Mission to the United Nations. She is the author of several children's books, ...

and entertainment executive

Haim Saban Haim Saban (; he, חיים סבן; born October 15, 1944) is an Israeli-American media proprietor, investor, and producer of records, film, and television. A businessman with interests in financial services, entertainment, and media, and an e ...

's $50 million donation to the museum in 2017. The Saban Building has served as the main building of the

since 2021. In 2012, the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

CEO Dawn Hudson asked Pritzker Prize-winning architect

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...

to design the 300,000-square-foot campus consisting of the former May Company Building and a spherical addition attached by three glass bridges. The museum's design plan called for the renovation of the original structure, which included a full restoration of the exterior—most notably its cylindrical façade. The cylinder comprises more than 350,000 glass and gold leaf mosaic tiles. While the restoration project, led by preservation specialist John Fidler, aimed to preserve as many of the original tiles as possible, those that had to be replaced were sourced from Orsoni, their original manufacturer in Venice, Italy. The majority of the Saban Building is covered in Texas limestone panels which had started to deteriorate. Fidler used an English technique called helifix anchor that allowed them to cut away at the spoiled and broken stone and remove the corroding metal fundamentally restoring the exterior of the building. Renzo Piano was also commissioned to design the building's new spherical addition. The 130-foot-tall sphere building is home to the 1,000-seat David Geffen Theater and is topped by the glass-domed Dolby Family Terrace which offers guests a panoramic view of the city and the Hollywood sign.

Appearances in popular culture

The building was featured in ''Visiting... with

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

'' Episode 702.

References

External links

* {{Official, https://www.academymuseum.org/en/about/the-building
Historic photos of building
via

* Buildings and structures in Los Angeles Historic department store buildings in the United States Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Commercial buildings completed in 1939 1930s architecture in the United States 1939 establishments in California Streamline Moderne architecture in California May Company buildings Retail buildings in California May Company California