Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Film museum in Los Angeles, United States
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures occupies the 1939 May Company Building, renamed the Saban Building, at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. Its restored limestone facade keeps the gold-leaf-tiled corner cylinder; a steel staircase tower and a glass-domed sphere, linked by glass bridges, stand behind a construction fence.
The May Company Building, a 1939 department store by architect Albert C. Martin Sr., was acquired by LACMA in 1994 and used as LACMA West after the store closed in 1993. Renamed the Saban Building after a $50 million gift from Cheryl and Haim Saban, it reopened with Renzo Piano's spherical addition on September 30, 2021, after pandemic delays.
The name comes from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which created its first permanent home for film art here. Visitors can trace how cinema evolved across different continents and eras through original costumes and props from productions worldwide.
The building sits on Wilshire Boulevard and opens daily, with longer hours on Friday and Saturday evenings. Visitors should allow plenty of time, as galleries span multiple floors and exploring different sections can take half a day.
From the Dolby Family Terrace you can sweep your gaze across the city, from downtown towers to the Hollywood Sign in the mountains. This outdoor space connects indoor galleries with the surrounding landscape and shows how the film industry wove itself into this terrain.
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