Adjacent to the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in the center of Los Angeles, the Audrey Irmas Pavilion shapes a new presence for this busy city corner and frames the entry to the Temple complex. L’Observatoire International worked with OMA and Gruen Associates to amplify the urban presence of the building, while retaining a welcoming atmosphere for the community. As it rises, the building angles away from the Sanctuary and its adjacent historic school, changing its rectilinear footprint and bringing lightness into the spaces between the buildings.
The exterior is illuminated in a soft wash of light, shaping the building as a monolithic whole. It elevates the striking identity of the building, heightening the detailed materiality of its hexagonal facade panels, while underscoring the minimalism of the architecture as a whole. Several social and event spaces puncture the solidity of the building and are articulated as carved openings in the facade. These voids are accentuated through the lighting, radiating interior lighting towards the exterior and showcasing the building’s community-oriented program.
On the ground floor, a large arched banquet hall invites the public inside. Lined in wood, the space is illuminated to emanate a welcoming atmosphere that extends to the street. On the upper levels, interior and exterior event spaces are positioned to overlook the Temple, and an amphitheater connects to the roof garden. A consistent and unifying system of diffuse and accent lighting runs throughout most interior spaces of the building—from the circulation spaces to the offices and event spaces—to maintain a cohesive overall scheme of illumination as its projects outward to the city.