Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

An architectural showstopper, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the world’s first, large-scale museum solely dedicated to the history, art, craft, science, and business of movies and moviemaking.

Located on Museum Mile in Los Angeles, the Academy Museum includes 50,000 square feet of gallery space, two theatres, an outdoor piazza and a terrace with sweeping views of the Hollywood Hills. Renzo Piano speaks of “A dialogue between the existing building (‘gravitas’) and the new extension (‘levitas’) … a discourse between shadow and light, heaviness and weightlessness.”

FMS completed a comprehensive Environmental Impact Study and developed the lighting design for the entire project and site, which includes the design of custom elements and a highly flexible lighting system. Indirect lighting features the engineering prowess of the new theater – a massive, raised sphere showcasing the clear span of the plaza below. The 300,000 square foot campus conjoins old and new architecture through quietly illuminated glass bridges floating above pedestrian axes, connecting with the adjacent art museum.