Saiful Bouquet designed an innovative modular cantilevered wall system to support the artwork on display in the first and third floor galleries at the Broad Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles.
The art walls were designed to be relocatable, anchoring into an array of inserts in the building’s floor slabs, through anchor points concealed in the air distribution vents in the gallery floors. Though the walls included steel strengthening elements, the wall panels were modularized so that disassembly and reassembly could be accomplished using only woodworking tools, without leaving a trace of their prior placement on the polished concrete floor slabs. Backing is provided to support heavy artwork cantilevering off the wall surfaces. The walls appear to float above the floor, allowing a gap for air distribution from the floor vents. Different art wall systems are provided in the first floor and third floor galleries of the museum.
Saiful Bouquet also designed numerous other structural improvements for the Broad Museum, including a new elevator, band shell, and the Broad Plaza elevated landscaped deck, which was awarded the Excellence in Engineering: Best Special Use Structure by SEAOC in 2016.
