Image, Apparatus, and the Ownership of Time

Both the 1932 and 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles were tremendous commercial successes; the events elevated the Games from being solely an athletic competition to that of a global spectacle. Corporate branding and sponsorship have now become an integral part of the architecture of each Olympic Games, deeply informing stadium design and spectator experience. In this thesis project, I explore the marriage between architecture and image, building and billboard in the design of the Olympic beach volleyball stadium in Santa Monica for the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. In this project, I explore the architectural consequences of “owning time,” a strategy shared by host countries for the Olympics and corporate advertisers in order to captivate audiences and build up excitement for each event, whether experienced in person or on the screen.