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.)
Also of interest are the 243 individual custom-made glass facade components, the details of which were highlighted recently on LACMA's Unframed blog. Each has been manufactured by the German Seele Inc. company, a longtime collaborator with Zumthor and the project's co-architect, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The components are pivotal to realizing the new building's architectural design, which is meant to offer a maximal amount of transparency and natural light.
"We conducted different load and performance tests such as thermal cycling tests, wind and water intrusion tests, and seismic tests. These mock-ups (as well as the entirety of their design) heavily relied on a digitized process," Fabiola Suarez, senior project manager and LEED Green Associate at Clark Construction, shared with Unframed. "All departments at Seele, such as production planning, structural engineering, and manufacturing, use 3D models to coordinate and provide a comprehensive understanding of the system. Once the tests were successful, Seele’s 3D model was used for a collaborative BIM coordination process with other trade partners involved in this project."
The museum's Chief Operating Officer Diana Vesga added: "Thousands of works of art in our collection can be safely displayed in natural light. In fact, sculpture, tiles, ceramics, and more were meant to be viewed in natural light, and many were made for outdoor display. These works will be wonderful to view in a setting with natural light. The David Geffen Galleries also have a range of exhibition spaces, from galleries with plenty of natural light to spaces with controlled artificial lighting, and the majority of interior galleries are designed to be able to display light-sensitive works."
10 Comments
Meaningless fluff piece. "We did what most high end projects do for glazed facades."
So many words to say, "Very fancy site glazed window wall."
I'd still like to see the head detail though to understand the roof slab movement allowance.
I saw this thing in real life recently. It's not looking good so far.
Is any of the architectural concrete in its finished state yet? I thought it was supposed to end up almost black in color.
I don't think we ever got a detailed rendering that might tell us how this thing will actually look when completed. Economics forced trimming, and SOM'engineering will have a hand. We are in for a surprise, one way or another.
What you see in the photo of the glass install is the finished condition of the concrete.
Buried under obscurity for decades, the fantastic Japanese Pavilion will finally be on the red carpet... Thank you, Zumthor.
Agree that improved visibility of the Goff building does appear to be a positive outcome of the Zumthor project.
in case they want want to give it more curb appeal...
Let's hope the local Los Angeles architects take the opportunity to learn from a master European architect. Sadly I'm not convinced that any locals bothered to learn anything from New York architects Richard Meier and Diller Scofidio Renfro when they built prominently in Los Angeles.
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