Audrey Irmas Pavilion

Intersecting styles: modern pavilion meets iconic temple

Audrey Irmas Pavilion, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A.

The Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles is a monolithic trapezoidal silhouette standing in juxtaposition to the Byzantine-revival, dome-topped temple it serves. Its mesmerizing design with glowing green glass features makes it the 2022’s exterior winner of Vanceva’s World of Color Awards™.

The 55,000-square-foot pavilion was designed to host religious and cultural activities, celebrations, and performances on a shared campus with the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a synagogue built in 1929 by Jewish Hollywood moguls. With its geometric lines, neutral facade dotted with hexagonal shapes and windows, and recessed green glass terrace, the pavilion serves as a counterpoint to the traditionally styled temple.

Its design is the work of Shohei Shigematsu, a collaborator with Gruen Associates of Los Angeles, and a partner at OMA, the Office of Metropolitan Architecture, an international practice founded by renowned Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha, and Brisbane.

The three-story pavilion is divided into three harmonious gathering spaces—each with a distinct scale and spatial character—stacked on top of each other. The ground-level grand ballroom features a barrel-vaulted ceiling and warm Gaboon wood paneling. At the top of the building is the sunken roof terrace surrounded by smaller meeting rooms and incredible views of Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign, and the mountains to the north.

Between these two spaces lies an incredible green glass jewel—the Diane and Guilford Glazer Chapel. Surrounded by green glass made of eight Vanceva® PVB interlayers combined with a metal mesh interlayer, the chapel is visible from its oversized trapezoidal window on the east side. The chapel opens onto the West Terrace, facing the historic temple and providing yet another amazing view of the green glass.

The interior partitions of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Chapel, as well as the insulated, laminated green glass units in the West Terrace, were fabricated by Goldray Glass and installed by Steel City Glass alongside MATT Construction.

The Pavilion is named after its benefactor—Audrey Irmas—a philanthropist, art collector, and longtime member of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who sold a Cy Twombly chalkboard painting for $30 million to help fund the center. Not only does the pavilion serve its congregation, it also serves the Los Angeles community as a whole. Along with religious and cultural celebrations and community performances, the pavilion is home to the Annenberg Foundation, which focuses on purposeful aging.

“Outstanding,” is how WOCA juror Joe Jacoby describes the pavilion: “Such powerful pops of color contrasting the light-colored fractal facade. The simplicity of the green has a dramatic impact and meaningful connection to the existing green dome roof next door. Took a simple concept, and went big with it while keeping the purity of the design.”

Another WOCA juror, Firas Hnoosh, stated that “Color laminated glass was not simply used to add color; it was used as a painting and volumetric medium to color the different recesses within the building and complement the composition.”