Architectural Marvel: The Broad Museum with GFRC Panels

The Broad Museum, located in Los Angeles, CA, is a testament to innovative architectural design and advanced engineering. Designed by Diller Scofidio Renfro with Gensler as the executive architect, and constructed by Matt Construction Co., this project utilizes 120,000 square feet of glass-fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels, comprising 2500 individual panels. The museum’s distinctive “veil” and “vault” design features hundreds of conical light openings, creating an airy, cellular exoskeleton that envelops the building’s public exhibition and archive/storage spaces.

The vault is enveloped on all sides by an airy, cellular exoskeleton structure made up of 2500 glass-fiber-reinforced concrete (GFRC) panels and 650 tons of steel lifts that span across the block-long gallery; it provides filtered natural daylight. “The process of making the formwork for the uniquely shaped panels was a key factor in the success of this GFRC application,” says David Pakshong of Gensler, the executive architect on the project. Choosing a product with the demands for hundreds of different unique curved shapes for the exterior skin was a big challenge for the design team. Creating hundreds of conical light openings for the building and replicating the front oculus from a parabolic curve would need a product that was flexible and versatile to adapt to this design shape.

The designers created complete geometric information for each panel in three-dimensional (3-D) computer models. The precast concrete producer imported this data directly into the tool path software to create instructions for a five-axis computerized-numerical control machine to carve molds out of high-density foam. Before skinning in fiberglass, the foam molds were sanded and sealed to create the negative formwork for the GFRC panels. “The versatility of this rapid prototyping supported the timely resolution of many complex geometric conditions,” Pakshong says.