Peter Zumthor’s $ 600 million plan for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is changing. Again. According to a piece in the Los Angeles Times, the sprawling and curving black form has been angled off, weighted to the south, and outfitted with greyish, double-height galleries poking up above the main mass’ roofline.
The building still swoops over Wilshire Boulevard to avoid disturbing the La Brea Tar Pits, but it will now have just two entrances (instead of seven), at its north and south ends, and its continuous loop of perimeter hallway galleries has been removed.
“Peter hasn’t given up the curve. But he’s really, really reined it in,” LACMA Director Michael Govan told the Times. The latest design will be discussed tonight, Wednesday, March 25 at Occidental College, as part of the school’s “3rd Los Angeles Project,” a series of public events examining the city’s move into a “dramatically new phase in its civic development.” Members of the panel will include host Christopher Hawthorne, Govan, journalists Greg Goldin and Carolina Miranda, and architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee.
The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors has approved initial funding of $125 million in bonds (pending approval of the project’s EIR), but LACMA still needs to raise about $500 million to make Zumthor’s in-progress scheme reality.
