Reimagining the Museum as Urban Infrastructure
This proposal was developed as part of the 2019 GUI Architectural Design Competition hosted by the Knowlton School, where teams were invited to reimagine the La Brea Tar Pits Museum in Los Angeles. The competition brief asked students to rethink the museum's role in the urban fabric by integrating public, private, and scientific functions into a single spatial ecosystem. Our design received an Honorable Mention for its strong conceptual clarity, material strategy, and spatial resolution. More than just a cultural venue, the museum was envisioned as a new infrastructural node: a dynamic interface between civic space, scientific discovery, and future-forward urban mobility.
Embedding Mobility into Architecture as Civic Strategy
Located along Wilshire Boulevard (one of LA's major arteries), the museum sits at the intersection of urban density, ecological history, and transit potential. Our scheme proposes transforming the museum into a multimodal transportation hub, where micro-mobility lanes, public paths, and gathering spaces converge. The architectural mass is carved open to reveal circulation corridors and layered entry points, transforming the original monolith into a porous civic connector. More than a museum, it becomes a transit-integrated institution: a new typology that unifies movement, knowledge, and community within a hybridized spatial envelope.
Designing with Flow: Horizontal Systems of Movement and View
The building is organized around a double-curve circulation system that guides both visitors and researchers through fluid, intersecting paths. Dedicated bike and scooter lanes activate the site from multiple directions, embedding mobility into the architecture itself. The plan erodes the boundary between exhibition and infrastructure: public paths intersect with viewing corridors and transparent labs, revealing the museum's internal processes. This layout ensures seamless horizontal connectivity while maximizing visual openness and civic inclusion.
