Why you should visit Veil and Vault Atrium.
You should visit the Veil and Vault Atrium because it represents the architectural heartbeat of The Broad, the moment where light, air, and emotion converge into something both monumental and intimate.
The space is a revelation in itself, a living sculpture that blurs the boundary between exterior and interior. Designed to act as the museum’s lung, it breathes light from Grand Avenue into the building’s hollow core. Standing beneath its lattice-like ceiling, you can feel the genius of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, their “veil” of honeycombed concrete allows daylight to cascade through its pores, transforming as the sun shifts across the Los Angeles sky. The atrium is less of a lobby and more of a transition between worlds: the noise and velocity of the city dissolving into the hushed, reverent stillness of contemporary art. It’s a place to reset your senses, to let the architectural geometry cleanse your palette before stepping deeper into The Broad’s collection. Few museum entrances in the world command attention with such theatrical grace, and fewer still manage to do so with such humility.
What you didn’t know about Veil and Vault Atrium.
What you didn’t know about the Veil and Vault Atrium is that it’s more than just a design statement, it’s the soul of The Broad’s structural philosophy, concealing one of the most advanced art-storage vaults in the world.
The “vault,” an opaque mass floating within the museum, literally holds the collection, over 2,000 works that rotate in and out of display. The curving concrete staircase that winds alongside it isn’t ornamental; it’s symbolic, a journey that bridges the visible and the hidden. Every detail, from the way the light grazes the curved surfaces to how sound softens beneath the veil’s perforations, was orchestrated to make visitors feel suspended between the known and the mysterious. Even the tactile contrast, the raw texture of concrete meeting the smooth fluidity of glass, is intentional, evoking the tension between permanence and impermanence that defines art itself. This duality of veil and vault gives the building its name and its identity: transparency without exposure, mystery without darkness. Most visitors never realize they’re walking atop one of the most secure, temperature-controlled art repositories on the planet.
How to fold Veil and Vault Atrium into your trip.
To fold the Veil and Vault Atrium into your trip, allow yourself a pause there, not just a passing glance on your way to the galleries.
Stand still at the center of the space and tilt your head upward to watch the light shift through the honeycomb apertures. The atmosphere feels kinetic yet peaceful, like a meditation disguised as architecture. From this vantage, you can see the interplay between the vault’s solid weight and the veil’s ethereal luminosity, an experience that subtly tunes your perception before you step into the art. Visit midday if possible, the sunlight cuts through the lattice like silk ribbons, painting the walls with transient geometry. Afterward, descend to the lower levels where the “vault” reveals itself in glimpses through glass, a voyeuristic peek into the museum’s unseen world. The atrium acts as both prologue and epilogue to your visit, a reminder that art isn’t only in the galleries but embedded within the very air that fills them.
Hear it from the Foresyte community.
Kind of wild how a museum looks like it’s breathing. Free to enter, full of giants like Warhol and Basquiat, and somehow still feels super laid back.
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