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LACMA demolition is underway

2020-04-08T17:08:00-04:00

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art confirmed Tuesday that it officially began demolition work, part of the controversial $750-million project to build a Peter Zumthor-designed main building. The work that began Monday focused on the museum’s 1965 Leo S. Bing Center, a 600-seat theater designed by architect William L. Pereira that has been used for film screenings, musical performances, talks and other events.

A LACMA spokesperson tells The Los Angeles Times that demolition crews are adhering to social distancing guidelines during the demolition process in an effort to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Save LACMA group could challenge museum proposal at the ballot box

2019-12-16T20:48:00-05:00

Save LACMA, a non-profit entity that has formed in response to public outcry against the controversial Atelier Peter Zumthor-led replacement proposal for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus, has announced that it is considering placing a ballot measure on the 2020 ballot that could challenge the standing of the project as recently approved.

In a fundraising email sent to the group's newsletter subscribers, Rob Hollman, Board Chair for Save LACMA, writes that the group has recently retained the services of the ballot initiative law expert Bradley Hertz and the Sutton Law Firm, where Hertz is a Partner.

Bird's eye view looking east. Image by Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner/The Boundary

In the message, Hollman writes, "After thoroughly briefing Bradley on LACMA's situation, and the museum’s insistence on moving forward with demolition of its existing campus to clear space for an unpopular, undersized and underfunded new building by Peter Zumthor, he suggested a bold li...

LACMA overpass maneuver is approved by Los Angeles City Council

2019-12-06T13:41:00-05:00

One of the more contentious elements of the controversial Atelier Peter Zumthor-designed Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) redesign project has been unanimously approved by the Los Angeles City Council.

This week, the Council approved the project's planned span over Wilshire Boulevard, The Los Angeles Business Journal reports. A significant portion of the plan had already been approved by the legislative body, but the overpass element required special approval due to the radical nature of the design and the fact that the building would cross over a public street. The overpass element has been highly controversial in public and critical discourse, and represents an effort on the part of the architects and LACMA Director Michael Govan to create a single-level mega gallery. Criticism of the plan includes a relatively helter-skelter approach to the urban design for the areas surrounding the proposed museum, including Hancock Park, where the museum is located.

Describing the urb...

LACMA fundraising effort stalls as museum turns into a ghost town

2019-11-14T15:45:00-05:00

Money just isn't coming in like it used to. At least, that's the case for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where efforts to raise $650 million to fund a new Atelier Peter Zumthor-designed expansion have hit a rough patch.

Christopher Knight, American art critic for The Los Angeles Times, provides an update on the fundraising efforts aimed at bringing the contentious (and by Knight's analysis, deeply flawed) LACMA replacement proposal to life. Knight explains that fundraising for the new museum is behind schedule and shows no signs of improvement. To make matters worse, the needed total has unofficially increased by $100 million, according to anonymous sources.

In his Op-Ed, Knight writes, "Over the past 16 months, Los Angeles County Museum of Art fundraising to erect a controversial new building, replacing most of its Wilshire Boulevard campus, has virtually ground to a halt. Four-fifths of the $650 million needed had been pledged by summer 2018, but next to nothing has been ...

New renderings of Peter Zumthor's $600-million LACMA redesign

2017-10-26T20:33:00-04:00

With the environmental review process now underway, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is moving forward with a $600-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor to makeover its Miracle Mile campus. The acclaimed Swiss architect's design would replace the current Bing Center, Hammer, Ahmanson, and Art of the Americas Buildings with a new 390,000 square-foot structure that spans across Wilshire Boulevard.

The design has gone through different evolutions since originally announced in 2014 and earlier this year, new, softer renderings were revealed after Zumthor expressed he was unhappy with the original ones. Construction of the new building is expected to begin in late 2018.

Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner / The Boundary

Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner

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.

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