Archinect - News

Peter Zumthor details LACMA’s design inspiration in new interview

2024-10-08T11:02:00-04:00

This must do something to the city—like the Pan Am Building in New York—but somehow today the courage is lost. It must mean something to the city that there is a shape that is hard to understand crossing the road. The owner’s representative in charge of our project recently said to me, “Peter, I’ve now started to understand what this building is doing on all sides.”

LACMA recently pushed back the opening of Zumthor's David Geffen Galleries to 2026 as Christopher Knight quoted an unnamed museum source in the LA Times as saying the project's budget (which had been an initial hurdle to clear) is now in excess of $835 million.

"In about a year, one end will open," Zumthor said, speaking of a public viewing period that could begin once the temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) is obtained next May. "Some curators were critical of the spatial concept of the layout of the museum. But now since they can go and see the space for the first time, they start to like it. And they see the beauty of the handmade concrete body of the building—so I am told."

LACMA updates design details, public opening timeline for David Geffen Galleries

2024-09-16T13:04:00-04:00

Here’s a brief update on the progress of Peter Zumthor’s David Geffen Galleries at the LACMA. The project now won’t open in full until 2026, the museum's J. Fiona Ragheb wrote in a staff memo obtained by the LA Times. The memo states that public access may be granted for two weeks after a temporary certificate of occupancy (TCO) is obtained in May of 2025 and before the installation of the permanent collection. Galleries are to be arranged thematically based on six oceanic regions thereafter. Christopher Knight, who first reported the news, quoted an internal museum source as saying the project’s budget is now in excess of $835 million.

Francis Kéré teams with LACMA to design the new Las Vegas Museum of Art

2024-09-06T11:00:00-04:00

Las Vegas and Francis Kéré may seem like an odd pairing, but that’s exactly where the rammed earth pioneer and 2022 Pritzker winner plans to deliver his first permanent American public building for the new Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA) in direct partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

Expectations are for the plan to begin construction in February 2027. The design yields a total of 90,000 square feet on a lot currently used for surface parking in Symphony Park near downtown Las Vegas. A Rendering appears to show the concept nodding to the desert vernacular in the mold of his other works and in line with the expected extreme heat challenges that will grip the city in coming years.

KTNV quoted a source as saying its design will quote Paul Revere Williams' nearby 1963 Guardian Angel Cathedral as one of its many influences and reported that the plan is to have the museum open by the end of 2028. Kéré says: "It is a tremendous honor, and a highlight of my profes...

LACMA shares custom-built glass facade details in new spring construction update

2024-04-16T13:39:00-04:00

New updates have been shared recently by the Los Angeles Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), charting progress on the $750 million new David Geffen Galleries from Peter Zumthor that is expected to finish construction by the end of this year.

According to the museum's most recent April 5th update, interior walls and exterior glazing are being installed on the site’s western side, facing north to Wilshire Boulevard. Work on the building’s MEPs is now underway, and the concrete pour for the roof decks has been completed to the east side of the site. Formwork, rebar installation, and concrete pours for the roof decks are also advancing on the Spaulding Lot.

This follows the March 8th update that detailed the removal of the site’s prominent tower crane. LACMA has yet to release a public opening date. (A recent look inside the project with its contractor Clark Construction can be found here.)

Image courtesy LACMA

Also of interest are the 243 individual custom-made glass facade components...

LACMA and Snapchat unveil third Monumental Perspectives AR collection across Los Angeles

2023-09-09T08:00:00-04:00

The third collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)’s ongoing Augmented Reality Monumental Perspectives series has been unveiled to the public, featuring works of five artists that offer insights into the histories of their own unique pockets of LA’s patchwork mosaic of communities.

The series’ final trove includes Victoria Fu, Yassi Mazandi, Rashaad Newsome, Rubén Ortiz Torres, and Alison Saar. Each is accessible through Snapchat’s Lens Explorer tab. The initiative is being funded as part of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s larger $250 million The Monuments Project project. LACMA President Michael Govan says each work “challenges us to examine the individual and communal legacies we are leaving today and how we are shaping the future of Los Angeles.”

Rubén Ortiz Torres, Dead Heads (2023). Image courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Yassi Mazandi, The Thirty Birds (2023). Image courtesy Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Fu will offer a virtual take on a subject,...

LACMA hosts a public scoping meeting for the planned Zumthor-designed building

2016-08-25T12:43:00-04:00

Last night, the Los Angeles County Museum held a public scoping meeting in advance of preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) for a planned Peter Zumthor-designed building. The Zumthor building would replace four existing structures and result in a net reduction of space amounting to approximately 24,571 square feet.

The meeting, which was well-attended but provided scant new information on the project, primarily consisted of a pitch for the building by LACMA’s director Michael Govan. “I thought it would be helpful to personally explain the genesis of the project and some of the facts of the project,” he stated.

Explaining that adapting the existing buildings would be cost-prohibitive, Govan went on to praise Zumthor’s design. Describing the planned building as “something permeable and transparent”, “exciting and innovative”, Govan stated that he believed other museums would follow their lead in creating “visibility into the museum”.

One of the most controversial parts of the pl...

Zumthor's LACMA renderings aren't 'undercooked' – they're exactly what the museum wants

2016-08-17T17:39:00-04:00

LACMA isn’t trying to sell fancy condos, it’s trying to sell an art museum. This isn’t about safe deposit boxes in the sky for foreign oligarchs, this a building that will require contributions from art patrons and museum donors, and these renderings speak their language. [...] More David Hockney than Zaha Hadid, they evoke a feel rather than architectural facts.

The latest from LACMA on Archinect:

Raw Rendering Ranters: Zumthor's 'undercooked' LACMA redesign on Archinect Sessions #76

2016-08-11T14:13:00-04:00

Peter Zumthor released new renderings for his LACMA redesign last week, and boy are people not impressed! We talk about the "undercooked" look of Zumthor's snaking concrete inkblot plan for the museum, and experiment with a new segment devoted to ranting on the podcast. You've been warned.

Listen to episode 76 of Archinect Sessions, "Raw Rendering Ranters":

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LACMA releases new renderings of proposed Peter Zumthor building

2016-08-04T17:48:00-04:00

On a newly-launched website, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has released renderings of the proposed Peter Zumthor-designed building, which would replace four existing buildings designed by William Pereira. In total, the new building, prosaically named the Building for the Permanent Collection, would comprise approximately 393,000 square feet, a reduction of about 25,000 square feet from the current gallery space.

The Swiss architect has been working for years on the project and several changes have been made since the original design was released. Most notably, and controversially, the building is now designed to span Wilshire Boulevard.

The dark grey concrete building will stand on eight giant legs, which will also serve as galleries and retail spaces. So-called “Meander” galleries containing benches and artworks will connect the various galleries along the building’s perimeter. In the renderings, they are shown as wide spaces with large windows providing views over the city. ...

Sunshine and noir: Peter Zumthor's new Los Angeles County Museum of Art

2015-08-17T18:48:00-04:00

Many have challenged the logic of a Swiss building in Los Angeles [...] In a sense, all of the criticisms can be boiled down to a single accusation: quality architecture does not belong in Los Angeles. [...] Contextualism in Los Angeles requires more innovation than matching roof heights or aligning cornices; its ecology is one of large and oversized cultural objects that act as signposts amid sprawl.

Situating LACMA in "master builder" Peter Zumthor's career overall, architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (of the LA-based firm Johnston Marklee) discuss what distinguishes his work in a city with a somewhat confused attitude towards icons and context.

Is Zumthor's inkblot the right size for LACMA's art?

2015-05-04T20:10:00-04:00

What will Zumthor's plan do for the museum's art and its audience? An art museum presents our histories in visual form; is LACMA making room for enough stories? [...] Los Angeles is one of the world's four major centers of art production. Yet the museum has no permanent-collection galleries that tell a California-authored story of contemporary art. [...] The proposed Zumthor building is also awfully expensive given its modest gain in exhibition space.

Christopher Hawthorne remembers the LACMA that once was

2015-04-16T17:42:00-04:00

As the museum turns 50 this year and debate continues about LACMA Director Michael Govan's plan to replace the Pereira buildings (and a later addition by Hugh Hardy) with a giant new wing by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, it's worth remembering how the original LACMA campus was greeted — as well as a few things about the Los Angeles into which it was born.

"The Erection, the Inkblot, and the RFRA Riff-Raff": Morphosis' Vals tower, Zumthor's LACMA, and Hoosier hospitality confronts RFRA on Archinect Sessions Episode #23

2015-04-02T19:25:00-04:00

It’s been a strange week, especially in Indiana. On this episode, before getting to the RFRA-ff, we hit on a neat architectural inversion: LA-heavyweight Morphosis designs a "middle-finger" luxury tower in the quaint mountain town of Vals, Switzerland, while the subtly grand Swiss museum-master Peter Zumthor pushes a calligraphic inkblot for LACMA on LA's Miracle Mile. Vals is already home to Zumthor's Therme Spa. It’s like Trading Spaces, but with starchitects!

On the latter-half of our show, Amelia, Donna and Ken talk with Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions’ legal correspondent, about Indiana’s controversial revisions to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – with our own Donna Sink on the ground in Indianapolis, we dig into how this national and local issue would affect architects and the profession.

Paul is away this week, on vacation in the outer reaches of Peru, blissfully out of Skype's reach. He'll be back as soon as he re-enters the connected world.

As always, you can send us y...