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Hagy Belzberg Is Teaching About the Holocaust Through Architecture

“I wanted to express by metaphor and use the public park to illustrate that people can enjoy life in a park, while yards away the atrocity of the Holocaust was occurring, as is depicted in museum artifacts.”
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December 9, 2021

In 2010, when architect Hagy Belzberg designed the Holocaust Museum LA (formerly known as Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust), situated at Pan Pacific Park, he saw that the expanse of the park grounds would provide the perfect canvas upon which the story of the Holocaust could best be told.

“I approached the design of the existing Holocaust Museum with a question: how do you educate people about the Holocaust, most of whom are young students without a Jewish connection, and help them understand such a horrific event that occurred so long ago and in another part of the world?” Belzberg said. “I tried to create an immersive experience.”

“I wanted to express by metaphor and use the public park to illustrate that people can enjoy life in a park, while yards away the atrocity of the Holocaust was occurring, as is depicted in museum artifacts.” — Hagy Belzberg

For example, he said, at the height of the Holocaust, people were enjoying picnics in parks and forests, while not that far away, millions of Jews were being exterminated. “I wanted to express by metaphor and use the public park to illustrate that people can enjoy life in a park, while yards away the atrocity of the Holocaust was occurring, as is depicted in museum artifacts.”

Hagy Belzberg
Photo by Sam Jones

Now, Belzberg is reimagining an expansion of the Holocaust Museum LA. “Museum space is at capacity, particularly during school hours—and requests for student tours and public workshops continue to increase,” Beth Kean, museum CEO said. “As a result, we are forced to turn away schools and tour groups. The expansion will allow the museum to increase visitor capacity to 500,000 by 2030, including 150,000 students.”

Kean described the expansion as featuring outdoor reflective spaces; large galleries and classrooms; a theater for survivor talks, film screenings, concerts, conferences and public programs and a pavilion to house an authentic Nazi-era boxcar, used to transport Jews to the death camps. It will also include a dedicated theater for USC Shoah Foundation’s “Dimensions in Testimony” exhibition that allows visitors to have a virtual conversation with a Holocaust survivor using a holographic capture and voice recognition software. 

The $45 million project has so far raised $22 million, with major lead gifts from Andrea Goldrich Cayton and Melinda Goldrich, daughters of museum founder and survivor Jona Goldrich, to name the new Jona Goldrich Campus. Other significant gifts have come from The Stanley and Joyce Black Family Foundation to name the Boxcar Pavilion, and $8.5 million from the State of California, which will provide a new building with greater space for classrooms, exhibits and public programs. 

The Tel Aviv-born Belzberg, 57, came to L.A. with his family when he was a child. He earned a bachelor’s  degree from Arizona State University and a Master of Architecture with Distinction from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. During summers he worked as an intern at Frank O. Gehry & Associates, among the most renowned architectural firms in the world. When he finished at Harvard, Gehry offered him a job, but he instead decided to launch his own architectural firm in Santa Monica — Belzberg Architects — which opened its doors in 1997 and has grown to 30 employees. 

Over the years, Belzberg has created a number of notable projects that showcase Jewish causes and Jewish institutions. In addition to the original Holocaust Museum LA and now the expansion, his Jewish-related projects include the USC Shoah Foundation, Ohr HaTorah Synagogue Campus and the BAR Center by the Beach for The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, with more in the pipeline.

Of all the exhibits Belzberg created at the expanded museum, he resonates most with the Boxcar Pavilion. “Seeing the actual artifact just guts you,” he said. “It’s a somber and ominous moment. Whether one is familiar with the Holocaust or not, it just hits you. The Boxcar Pavilion will allow people to walk around the boxcar and see details up close they never would imagine existed.”

Belzberg anticipates that construction on the museum will start in April 2022 and be completed in approximately 20 months. 

In addition to his Jewish-related projects, his firm puts its mark on all types of architecture including homes, office buildings, hospitals and campuses throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico. His work has garnered a number of prestigious awards, with the existing Holocaust Museum LA being one of only six projects to receive both the National American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Architecture and the National American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Interior Architecture in the same year.

Additionally, the hardcover book “Investigations, Selected Works by Belzberg Architects,” was recently released and provides a comprehensive chronology of all his firm’s projects, with special emphasis on his most high-profile works.  

It would have been a lost opportunity to not ask Belzberg how the pandemic has impacted building designs, especially offices. On that topic, he had much to say. 

“The idea of buildings that are hermetically-sealed environments are changing to buildings that breathe and are more open and flexible,” he said. “Also, access to technology has played a huge part in how we design for work environments. Before the pandemic, video conferencing was not as prolific. Now it exists in everybody’s home. It allows us to reduce office buildings’ square footage, sometimes with less parking requirements, since working from home has become part of our [new] normal.” 

With many family members in Israel, Belzberg is very connected to the Jewish State and visits often. He defines his Jewish identity as, “Reconstructionist, culturally very connected to my Jewish heritage and Israeli roots.”

When asked what projects he finds most fulfilling, the response came quickly: “Jewish-related projects are my true passion. It’s my inherent identity. Nothing is more satisfying.”

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