Audrey Irmas Pavilion at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Los Angeles

Located on Wilshire Boulevard in the heart of Los Angeles, the Audrey Irmas Pavilion designed by OMA will be a platform for gathering, forging new connections on the campus of a historic Jewish temple while inviting the urban realm in to create a new civic anchor. The Pavilion aims to harness the energy of gathering by simultaneously respecting historic traditions and reflecting modern civic needs. The design of the building started with a basic box, that was then transformed by its relationship to its neighbors. Carving out volumes and angles, the building shape evolved out of respect to the adjacent historical buildings on the campus.

Spaceagency was invited by OMA in 2017 to act as the graphics, identity and wayfinding designer for the Pavilion. Throughout the course of the design and construction, Spaceagency designed the Pavilion's identity mark, signage, wayfinding as well as a marketing brochure and 'making of' book.

Spaceagency's design concept was informed by the building design, where the distinct void shapes of an arch, a trapezoid and a circle serve as identifiers for each of the three event spaces. As events may take place simultaneously, guests are encouraged to follow the trail toward their destination using shapes which take the form of that event space. Treated as a modern interpretation of sacred geometries, the circle, trapezoid, arc and hexagon are used throughout the identity and wayfinding. A pattern which combines the building void shapes together is used to identify the entire building on its perimeter fence facing the public realm along Wilshire Boulevard.

A large donor wall which recognizes the many donors whose generous gifts contributed to the construction of the Pavilion is conceived as a landscape of pure white hexagons, all of the same size but mounted at differing depths from the wall. Each hexagon recognizes a donor and locates them within the network of donors, the only distinctions between larger benefactors and smaller donations being the depth to which they protrude from the landscape. This wall symbolizes the interconnectedness of the congregation and the collective endeavor to bring this stunning project to fruition.

The Pavilion consists of three distinct gathering spaces expressed as voids punctured through the building—a main event space which echoes the neighboring Temple dome by lowering the arc and extruding it north across the site, a trapezoidal chapel and terrace face west, framing the arched stained-glass windows of the historic Temple, and a circular sunken garden that connects a centre for purposeful aging on the top floor to the rooftop event space with expansive views of Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign, and the mountains to the north.

The three spaces are interlocked and stacked one atop another to establish vantage points in and out of each space. The external facade is clad with large hexagon panels which takes inspiration from the temple sanctuary next door as well as the geometries of the Star of David.

Photo Credit - Jason O’Rear