Binoculars Building

The Binoculars Building is a commercial building which incorporates a public sculpture ‘Giant Binoculars’ in its façade.

Located in Venice, Los Angeles, the building was originally built for the advertising agency Chait/Day, between 1991 and 2001. It was designed by the architect Frank Gehry.

Gehry’s post-modern design began with two very different structures, together making up 7,000 sq. m of office space. Gehry wanted to connect and anchor the two in the centre using a ‘giant random object’ as a sculpture. The giant binoculars, designed by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, became the access point to the building for both cars and pedestrians.

The binoculars were constructed on a steel frame, clad with concrete and cement plaster painted with elastomeric paint.

Two tall and unusually-shaped rooms were created inside that open onto a conference room. Both rooms are fitted with a huge elongated lightbulb suspended from the ceiling.

The building is now one of the many offices leased by Google, but it remains an intriguing and unusual example of Gehry's work.

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Comments

The building on the right is Frank Gehry's. He collaborated with an artist called Claes Oldenburg who does large sculptures like these binoculars.