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.
23 Comments
Zumthor has made a big concrete tumor that will eat LACMA. This design might be ok by itself somewhere else, but the waste, destruction, and questionable architecture happening here at this LACMA building project is hard to accept.
the photo makes it look really weird, like it got value engineered or something. not really getting the 'tar pit' vibe anymore.
Galleries are to be arranged thematically based on six oceanic regions thereafter.
This is a complete reversal of their original program. You have to wonder about compromises made in construction, especially in the interior.
This is probably more of an SOM LA project than a Zumthor project by now. He simply does not work at the scale and scope requisite of the project. I bet Zumthor is functioning more as a style consultant, with SOM producing all drawings and handling all coordination.
SOM probably would have done a better building by themselves. Zumthor's design concept just doesn't work on some pretty basic levels.
More and more this is looking like a so-so construction. About the only thing that distinguishes it is the blob from an aerial view. This was supposed to be an icon of some sort, a crowd magnet.
It might look good in Palm Springs or Brasilia.
This looks really bad. But not to worry, they will do some red carpet events with Hollywood stars and everyone will forget how terrible it is.
Hard to think that this is what we are spending money on whilst LA is plagued with so many problems.
The space below the span over Wilshire looks and will likely be abysmal. A far cry from the bright and clean appearance depicted in the initial renders.
Looks like a goddamned underpass .... which it is. Even Lower Grand looks better.
It could be interesting if they have a cool urban art/lighting program in the bridge...
I'll reserve judgement till it's actually done but so far nothing about this looks very inspiring.
Sad!
Buzz, your girlfriend, woof!
Actually, they haven't completely changed their program. Work will be separated geographically—I believe originally they wanted to mix cultures and regions—but within each region work, and I assume all work, will be organized thematically. (They could have had a small gallery giving a sample of related work, which could be changed periodically.)
There's a theory behind this I don't buy and I don't think will stand up. Somehow it is more interesting to the public, less autocratic and culturecentric. You won't be able to see how artists fit within a movement or compare to their contemporaries. Nor will you be able to trace changes in artistic approach over a period of time or have any sense of history of a culture. You lose all sense of orientation. Instead, you'll be stuck with whatever theme the curators come up with.
Something similar is going on with the design. It is designed to encourage space and movement—and, I suspect, be a crowd pleaser. At what price, for the art, for the institution, for the role of a museum?
Has the blunt charms of a Toll Plaza and the cosmopolitan flair of a Swiss Village.
Zumthor, like Kleihues who designed the MCA Chicago and Ponti who designed the Denver Art Museum, will never be asked to do another museum in the U.S.
Los Angeles got a clunker.
I run or drive by the LACMA almost every week so its been fun to watch the progress. Agree with others that the photo choice here is a strange one. Personally, I love the building! Its weird but LA is weird so it makes sense in a way and I'm happy they kept the Goff, another weird building.
That weirdly cool Goff building being maintained is the only good thing about this project. It has been beaten to death in these forums but there was a nice feel to all the disparate bits in the old Lacma. and quite frankly no one (including the architectural intelligentsia) was bothered by it
Once you pass all the architectural criticism, including my own here and there, LACMA will be a world-class museum and that was Michael Govan's strong pitch. In this iconic and uniquely LA site, the phrase "if you build it, they will come" is "people will come anyway."
More like "people will come anyway cuz theres nothing else in the area"
But will it be a good museum? And what makes a museum good would take much discussion and debate.
The thing that makes LACMA hard to evaluate for armchair critics like me is that, against its airy concept, we've seen very little that explains or shows how it might function as a museum.
And, in general, the presentations we've seen just haven't been very good.
This just made the Lucus Museum look great
lol
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