Broad Museum Announces $100 Million Expansion

The Broad museum in Los Angeles on March 27 revealed plans for a 55,000-square-foot expansion estimated to cost $100 million. Architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, which designed the institution’s original building, will have charge of the three-story addition. Groundbreaking is planned to take place in 2025, with completion slated for 2028, ahead of the Summer Olympics, which Los Angeles is hosting that year.

The Broad was founded in 2015 by philanthropists Eli (1933–2021) and Edythe Broad and has since become a popular destination for museumgoers, having attracted some 5.5 million visitors to date: It currently welcomes 900,000 attendees annually, nearly four times the number originally projected. The private museum is funded by the Broad Foundation and is free to the public, though it charges admission to special exhibitions. Devoted to contemporary art, the Broad collects work after the 1950s, with especially comprehensive holdings of works by Mark Bradford, Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman, and Kara Walker. The museum additionally seeks to display the work of artists from historically marginalized groups. Of the sixteen artists whose work it has purchased since 2021, fourteen are of color.

“[The expansion] really doubles down on the collecting approach and ultimate mission we have here, which is to build as large an audience for contemporary art as possible,” Broad founding director and president Joanne Heyler told the New York Times. “That was built into Eli’s ethos from the very beginning, and what he said even before we dreamed of opening a museum of our own.”

Appended to the rear of the main structure, the new building will expand the Broad’s exhibition space by 70 percent, containing galleries on all three floors, and will feature visible storage, allowing visitors to view more of the museum’s collection. Additional features will include two open-air courtyards, suitable for hosting large sculptures and installations, and a live performance space.