AKA: MOCA Temporary Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at the Geffen Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - exhibition buildings - museums

Designers: Gehry, Frank O. and Associates, Incorporated (firm); Levine/Seegel Associates, Consulting Engineers (firm); Martin, A.C. and Associates, Architects (firm); Frank Owen Gehry (architect); Levine (engineer); Albert Carey Martin Sr. (architect); Michael A. Sapio (engineer); Mark H. Seegel (electrical engineer); Anil H. Shenoy (mechanical engineer); Aravind H. Shenoy (engineer); Anil S. Shinde (mechanical engineer)

Dates: constructed 1947

152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012-3911

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It began its history as retail and warehouse space for the Union Hardware Company, designed by the prolific architectural firm of A.C. Martin and Associates, and later was acquired by the City of LA, which used its capacious interior for parking police vehicles and storing supplies.

Frank Gehry renovated this huge space into the "Temporary Contemporary" Museum, in 1983. MOCA officials rented it next to no cost from the City of Los Angeles and originally envisioned it as a temporary exhibition space while Arata Isozaki's MOCA building at 250 South Grand Avenue was being constructed, Trustees of MOCA decided to make the facility permanent as a result of public opinion for keeping it. MOCA later renamed the facility to become the "Geffen Contemporary," in honor of record mogul David Geffen (b. 1943) and his charitable foundation's $5 million donation of 1996.

PCAD id: 1242