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.” — The Brooklyn Rail
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."
10 Comments
"so I am told"
It does seem like he's way disconnected from the project ... almost as if he's a consultant to the SOM team running the thing.
What do you expect him to do? Take the CA supplemental exam? That's a pain in the butt.
It seems that the budget issues related to the subsurface work and resulting VE had him push back from the table. I don't understand how one does a project at LACMA without expecting huge paleontological and geotechnical complications, but the blame for that belongs with Govan and whomever he hired for management (surely SOM knew?).
"why.... there's tar in the ground here, how did that happen?"
poser
I am not hip enough to have heard of "The Brooklyn Rail" publication, even though it's apparently been around for 24 years.
I generally love Zumthor's work but this one from the street looks like it was inspired by a community college.
lol
Sorry, but he literally built a freeway overpass. From the ground that is all it reads as.
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