The new 232 seat theater seems weightless within the stainless steel shell. “It literally floats as an object free on all sides,” says Renfro, “in a void above the film archives, studies centers, and education center. That glass allows the object to be seen from… above but it also lets light down to the study center and archives below.” The museum extends farther into the earth where some of the its artworks—which number 19,000 and range from contemporary photography to Neolithic ceramics—are on display. In contrast to the warehouse galleries, these subterranean exhibition spaces are more traditional, enclosed, rectangular galleries. Photo 4 of 9 in A Floating Theater Hides Within this Art Deco-Inspired Modern Museum by Zach Edelson

A Floating Theater Hides Within this Art Deco-Inspired Modern Museum

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The new 232 seat theater seems weightless within the stainless steel shell. “It literally floats as an object free on all sides,” says Renfro, “in a void above the film archives, studies centers, and education center. That glass allows the object to be seen from… above but it also lets light down to the study center and archives below.”

The museum extends farther into the earth where some of the its artworks—which number 19,000 and range from contemporary photography to Neolithic ceramics—are on display. In contrast to the warehouse galleries, these subterranean exhibition spaces are more traditional, enclosed, rectangular galleries.