The Broad is an art museum opened in 2015 and designed to house and showcase the post-war and contemporary art collections of philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the museum is home to nearly 2,000 works divided between two floors of gallery space. It is also the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro worked in close collaboration with Arup on the design of The Broad, helping showcase a new and unique ‘veil-and-vault’ concept while also assisting with Building Information Modelling of the building services and energy-saving strategies for the building. We also provided mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering, along with commissioning, lighting design, acoustic consulting, fire/life safety consulting, and earlier-phase audio visual and IT.

The Broad’s design is just as unique and forward-looking as the contemporary art collection it houses, its ‘vault-and-veil’ revealing the ‘vault’ of the museum’s archives, surrounded by a honeycomb-like ‘veil’ design. Arup’s energy-saving designs helped the Broad attain LEED Gold rating; the museum was also named Daylight Project of the Year at the 2016 Lighting Design Awards, and was named Southern California's 2016 Project of Year by Engineering News-Record.

The top floor gallery is illuminated by expansive north-facing skylight clerestories and a fully-shaded glazed east wall. Arup assisted with the Building Information Modelling (BIM) of the building services in the roof and lobby ceilings. This allowed for seamless integration of sprinklers, sensors, shading devices, conduit, and electric lighting into the architectural aesthetic. Our energy saving strategies included utilising the architectural ‘veil’ as an external shading device; daylight harvesting; and occupancy-based control of lighting. The building’s energy use, projected to be lower than the current California Energy Code requirements by at least 20%, assisted in the goal of achieving a LEED Gold rating.