The Paley Center for Media
Beverly Hills, California
1994-1996

The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, in Beverly Hills is located prominently at the corner of North Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard. Flooded with natural light and open to the street, this two-story building is an adaptive reuse of an existing 1970’s banking hall structure.

The North Beverly Drive entrance is set back from the property line to create a threshold to the top-lit cylindrical lobby that is the symbolic center of the museum. The lobby affords access to the gallery, the 150-seat theater, the Radio Studio, and the Listening Room.

The information desk, the museum shop, and a multipurpose education room are on the ground floor. Visitors reach the second floor via a stepped ramp that penetrates the rotunda and overlooks the exhibition space, providing views of the streetscapes beyond. Here the movement system is inseparable from the viewing system as the stair culminates in the reading room on the second floor. The trustees’ conference room and roof garden take advantage of views from the third floor terrace.