THE

BROAD

EXPANSION

The Broad expansion will build upon the success of The Broad’s first decade by providing enhanced public access to the growing collection, extend The Broad’s standard-setting visitor engagement, and make possible deeper offerings in live programming. Founded in 2015 with a mandate from philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad to build a large audience for contemporary art, the museum has far exceeded its own projections, having welcomed more than 5.5 million visitors to date and now regularly attracting nearly four times more visitors than originally envisioned.

The expansion opens a new perspective on the “veil and vault” concept DS+R introduced in 2015, with the building’s iconic white honeycomb “veil” enveloping the “vault,” the sculptural grey core that contains art storage. The exterior of the expansion echoes the surface appearance of the vault—as if this core had been exposed and “unveiled”—symbolically expressing The Broad’s commitment to access while playfully inverting the visual vocabulary of the current building. Inside the addition, there will be large new galleries on the first, second, and third floors, as well as second-floor spaces in which visitors will be able to move among racks filled with artworks from the collection, creating a zone that serves simultaneously as gallery and art storage.

The new building—which will break ground within The Broad’s first decade—will reinforce the open, inventive, and welcoming qualities for which the museum is known, while adding entirely new facets for visitors to discover. The expansion offers:

• Space to dramatically increase the number of collection artworks on view. The expansion’s 55,000 square feet of new construction increases The Broad’s galleries by 70% and allows visitors to see more of the museum’s growing collection, including its uniquely deep and extensive single-artist holdings.
• Two top-floor, open-air courtyards where visitors can gather, relax, and enjoy art outdoors.
• Flexible live programming space where the public will encounter boundary-breaking performances, concerts, or multimedia installations, or participate in a family weekend workshop or school program.
• A new experience of the art storage vault that invites visitors into a room with painting racks, allowing unexpected themes to emerge as various works are pulled out from visit to visit.

The Broad was built to reach the widest possible audience—and through a redefined approach to visitor engagement as well as free general admission, the museum has created a warm and inviting environment where all members of the public can feel welcomed. While maintaining a commitment to rigorous scholarship and intellectual exploration through ambitious special exhibitions and live programs, The Broad aims to heighten this distinctive feeling of openness and belonging, extending it everywhere throughout the addition.

Designs for the expansion preserve the ethos of the original building, taking care to activate every space, especially those transitional areas connecting galleries and floors, adding a sense of choreography, purpose, and narrative to the visitor’s journey through the art on view.

“I think of the new building as a companion to the existing Broad,” said Elizabeth Diller. “The pair shares DNA, but each has its own distinct character and purpose in constant dialogue with its counterpart. The original Broad was conceived as an unfolding experience starting in the lobby, traveling up the escalator piercing the vault, landing in the third-floor gallery immersed in the collection, then snaking down through collection storage on the way back to the street. The challenge of adding more space to the building was to retain this intuitive circulation and logic while introducing a set of completely new experiences for the visitor.”

Outside, a new covered plaza will greet Metro riders entering from the Grand Avenue Arts / Bunker Hill station. Named after Los Angeles County’s First District Supervisor, the Hilda Solis Plaza creates a gateway from public transit to the vibrant arts corridor, businesses, residences, hotels, and dining on Grand Avenue.

The Broad will break ground on the expansion in early 2025 during its tenth-anniversary year and will remain open during construction. The new building will open to the public before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. General admission will continue to be free.