A dynamic space for media and performance, the Billy Wilder Theater, for which Hiroshi Tokumaru the Senior Technical Coordinator and Wil Carson a Project Designer at Michael Maltzan Architecture, is home to the UCLA Film & Television Archive as well as a centerpiece of the larger UCLA Hammer Museum, a catalyst for the Museum’s continued growth as an unequaled home for the arts in Los Angeles and in the United States. The project was the first phase of the Museum’s major multiyear expansion, which also includes new galleries, a cafe, and education spaces. The theater is unique within Los Angeles in that it has been designed to support the broadest array of film technology from new digital projection technologies to archival cellulose acetate films in a high-rise structure. It also includes back of house spaces, a deep, flexible stage for a wide range of performance types, a green room, and flexible lighting to support this diversity of uses.

“Aside from transforming a blank concrete shell into one of the world’s most sophisticated cinematheques, the architects were asked to design a distinct destination within the museum that also functions as a link in the larger narrative between city and campus. Since the technological components of the project gobbled up a large portion of the budget, the challenge was to create a strong space with minimal financial resources.”

A R C H I T E C T U R A L   L I G H T I N G

R O L E S

Hiroshi Tokumaru, Senior Technical Coordinator
Wil Carson, Project Designer
Michael Maltzan Architecture

P H O T O G R A P H Y

Wil Carson