Oscar museum to be designed by Renzo Piano, Zoltan Pali

Celebrated Italian architect Renzo Piano is teaming up with American Zoltan Pali to transform a heritage building in Los Angeles into a new museum for the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which administers the Oscars each year.

The Pritzker Prize-winning Piano joined Pali and academy CEO Dawn Hudson to announce details of the new facility in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Hudson noted Piano's "track record of creating iconic cultural landmarks" and praised Pali for his "success in transforming historically significant buildings," calling the pairing "a perfect marriage for a museum that celebrates the history and the future of the movies."

Tentatively slated to open in 2016, the new centre is to explore the art of movie-making and the evolution of film. It will also showcase iconic movie memorabilia, for instance Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

The duo will redesign the former May Company building, next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Hollywood, and transform it intothe museum.

Both are familiar with the existing building, which was designed in the 1940s.

Piano,whose work includesthe Shard tower in London, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Menil Collection in Houston, designed the expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which owns the historic building.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles architect Pali who wasbehind restorations of thecity'sGreek Theatre, Gibson Amphitheatre and Pantages Theatre conducted a portion of his studies in the heritage venue.

Neither architect wants the new initiative to be thought of a museum, but rather "a cultural centre" for cinema.

"A museum gives you the sense that this picture is hanging on a wall or a sculpture is standing in the middle of the floor...but this is going to be something different," Pali told industry newspaper The Hollywood Reporter.