OMA Unveils Sloped Expansion For Jewish Wilshire Boulevard Temple in LA

Located in the heart of LA between the Frank Gehry-designed landmark Walt Disney Concert hall and Los Angeles County Museum of Art known as LACMA, the Jewish Wilshire Boulevard Temple is being expanded. Designed by the leading architecture firm The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), a new structure is planned to rise next to the oldest Jewish congregation in LA.
Known as the Audrey Irmas Pavillion, OMA’s new multi-purpose building includes new meeting spaces for the community of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The expansion is named after the American philanthropist and art collector Audrey Irmas, who has donated generous amounts to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Interestingly, the Audrey Irmas Pavillion marks OMA’s first religious and cultural building in California. The Dutch firm has won the design as a part of an international competition earlier in 2015.
Featuring a sloped facade, the building stands in stark contrast with the original Byzantine-revival temple neighboring it.  The building includes 3 integrated gathering spaces; the main event space, a smaller multi-purpose room, and a sunken garden. A series of small openings allow indirect light to enter the pavilion.
OMA’s partner Shohei Shigematsu, who is the current director of OMA’s New York Office, has explained that the new Audrey Irmas Pavillion focused on gathering spaces. He says, “‘We wanted to focus on communicating the energy of gathering and exchange,’. He emphasizes that the firm designed the pavilion with a socially-conscious design approach that serves the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
He adds, ‘The pavilion is an active gesture, shaped by respectful moves away from the surrounding historic buildings, reaching out onto Wilshire Boulevard Temple to create a new presence. within the building, a series of interconnected meeting spaces at multiple scales provide ultimate flexibility for assembly while maintaining visual connections that establish outdoor indoor porosity and moments of surprise encounters.’

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