With ‘The Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ Ms. Opal Lee, at the helm, the National Juneteenth Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of Juneteenth and legacy of freedom. Declared a federal holiday in the U.S. on June , , when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act with Ms. Lee by his side, Juneteenth (June th) commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation’s enforcement and the liberation of the remainder of the enslaved both in Texas and throughout the newly reformed United States, which happened on June , .

The Arts District in Los Angeles is experiencing a rapid renaissance, drawing creatives to the city from the fine arts, to engineering. When hired to design Los Angeles Arts District (LAAD), or Mesquit &#; a mixed-use development incorporating housing, offices, and public spaces &#; BIG asked: how can the Arts District be renewed by embracing rather than replacing the qualities that have spawned this unique urban culture

The JRC building is positioned diagonally across the site connecting it to the ‘Jardin Americano’ river-front and the Torre Sevilla market in a seamless continuous public space. Placing the building diagonally also creates a new public square on one side of the building and a private garden for the JRC community on the other. The floorplates of the research center step back as the building ascends, creating a series of terraces, shaded outdoor spaces for breakouts, relaxation, and informal meetings with views of the city.

The simple manipulation of the archetypical space-defining garden wall creates a presence in the Park that changes as you move around it and through it. The north-south elevation of the Pavilion is a perfect rectangle. The east-west elevation is an undulating sculptural silhouette. Towards the east-west, the Pavilion is completely opaque and material. Towards the north-south, it is entirely transparent and practically immaterial. As a result, presence becomes absence, orthogonal becomes curvilinear, structure becomes gesture and box becomes blob.

The program organization of the venues informs the bow tie-shaped volume on the outside: the main auditorium is located in the middle, sandwiched by the front-of-house activities facing south, and all of the back-of-house activities and services to the north. The facades on each side of the building reveal the interior program to passersby outside, creating a storybook for the public and allowing the theatre operation to act as a stage in its own right.