Petersen Automotive Museum renovation
 

Not exactly about vehicle aerodynamics but about aero inspiration for the world's best auto museum. The new and dramatic exterior of LA's Petersen Museum; they wanted it to 'look' fast, so they used primary red walls accented by changing LED halo lighting. They also took graphic inspiration from fluid dynamics of iconic smoke trails of wind tunnel vehicle studies. The dramatic visualization of the 'streamlines' or stainless steel ribbons flow around and over the top of the existing museum structure. Follow the primary ribbon flow as it 'hits' the acute angled corner of Fairfax and Wilshire, curling around Orange Grove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw68pV7p6i8

Petersen Automotive Museum - LA Times

:mad: It's like a big wing and a Hello Kitty exhaust tip on a Honda Civic. :mad:

I guess it is LA, home of the fast-and-furious neon ground effect.

Consider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_National_Stadium. The outer 'birdcage' is at least partially structural, even though the retractable roof was never added. The Petersen's free-form ribbons are dead weight, with horrendous implications for atmospheric interference drag.

OTOH the next video was Csaba Csere touring the Petersen Automotive Museum Vault (Part 2) for Car and Driver. So far I've seen:

• a Bugatti Type 57 coachbuilt for the Shah of Iran's 1939 wedding, with a windshield that cranks up and down in the cowl
• a Cadillac three-window coupe that belonged to Carol Lombard
• a 1956 [spec] Imperial Parade car that carried Presidents and astronauts, with a neat speedster windshield and APU

Gotta go, busy at the moment. :)

Imitating China?

Not exactly, Herzog & de Meuron firm (Beijing National Stadium, Stade de Bordeaux, Allianz Arena) is one of the darlings of the Euro postmodern/deconstructivist movement.

SoCal locals; Frank Gehry created the Disney Concert Hall and House & Robertson Architects have their sculptural version for the Petersen.

And that's a wrap!

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Reminds me of the Experience Music Project (EMP) in Seattle.

http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f...psrvv4fmee.jpg



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I think Gehry was on the right track in his corrugated metal and Cyclone fencing days, but from the Bilbao Museum on he forgot: just because you can doesn't mean you should. The better architect is Sir Norman Foster. The guy who repopped Bucky's Dymaxion #3. What a double-walled building that respects 'the streamlines' might look like:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...all_Street.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_St_Mary_Axe

Something more suited to an Auto Museum:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...hington%29.JPG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Car_Museum

I was going to point that out too. EMP is local to me, and in person it looks even worse than the pictures. I call it the train wreck, as it literally looks like a pile of twisted train cars, and like the figurative train wreck, it's awful, but you can't help but stare.

The new Petersen design isn't quite as much of an eyesore... but close.