Museum of Neon Art 2015

Designers: Joey Shimoda, Dan Allen, Garine Gabrielian, Neil Muntzel, Romiar Karamooz, Paul Vu, Michael Bernal, and Ben Grobe, Shimoda Design Group, Los Angeles, California, USA
Client: City of Glendale, Glendale, California, USA

The Museum of Neon Art project is an urban revitalization project that was created by the City of Glendale to infuse cultural and pedestrian connectivity into the heart of its downtown district. The project is comprised of a building renovation, the creation of a public paseo and a new home for the Museum of Neon Art. The project area combines an 8,400 square foot building renovation and interiors with a 6,000 square foot public paseo. The architecture and interiors of the project was executed by the Shimoda Design Group. The public paseo was master planned by Shimoda Design Group and then designed and executed by another architectural firm.

The project created the following benefits for the community.

Public and Private Partnership:

The City has enjoyed much success in creating a retail destination environment. The development of the Americana has proven to be a powerful magnet for activity and economic success. The Glendale Redevelopment Agency and the Department of City Planning worked with the architect to create a two stage project in conjunction with the Museum of Neon Art. The city facilitated the redevelopment of the property and gave a generous tenant agreement to the museum, despite the possibility of gaining a high rent retail tenant. The City’s leadership made a conscious investment into a cultural organization.

Cultural Connectivity:

The central and significant location of the project created an opportunity to link many city services with the energy and community of Brand Boulevard. The museum is a southern anchor to the boulevard. The Alex Theatre, a historic theatre with an amazing neon façade, anchors the northern portion of Brand. The intersection of Brand and Caruso Avenue connects the museum with the Americana mixed use development. The Paseo allows the pedestrian traffic of the boulevard to connect with the Glendale public library and the recently-completed city-run, adult recreation center. The museum becomes the hub of where the world of commerce flows into the cultural.

Architecture that celebrates adaptive reuse:

The project consists of taking two existing buildings and combining their footprints. It is further complicated by taking the larger of the two buildings and splitting it in half to create the new paseo. Due to limitations in construction budget and the desire to retain as much of the existing structure as possible, the renovation for all new construction was limited to the area closest to the Brand street façade. The architecture maximized the use of the existing volumes and chose to make the interior of the gallery space as raw as possible. It was an opportunity to show the old against the new. The front 25 feet of the building consists of a neon workshop / classroom and a retail museum shop. The building mass was designed to allow a feeling of color to flow into the public street. A large expanse of glass allows the workshop and the store to share the process of neon, but it also allows the passerby a dynamic sensory experience of color flowing from within. A large glass box teeters on the edge of the building to create a glowing neon lantern that can be viewed from blocks away. The box is also a platform for a 19 foot long neon diver sign that was commissioned by the City. At night the diver signals a playful image of the past and floats gently over the public paseo. The paseo was also envisioned as a sculpture and event park. The City commissioned a second neon sign at the end of the paseo to bookend the public space. The city also allowed special signage considerations that would allow the museum to place additional signs in the paseo.

The challenges of working with any public organization revolve around time and timing. The city leaders and redevelopment agency worked in close coordination with the design team to shepherd this project into reality. While the project took approximately 7 years from start to finish. The result will last for many more years to come. The careful planning and infusion of culturally balanced programs is the key to successful urban revitalization. This project is a catalyst for all who visit this area and the architecture fuels a rich and varied community experience.