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“We have this museum district,” says architect and theorist Dana Cuff, who oversees cityLAB, an urban research and design center at UCLA, “but the stuff that holds everything together is the part we call the city, and that is the part that Los Angeles has never gotten right.” — The Los Angeles Times
Carolina Miranda of The Los Angeles Times reports that despite a number of new and forthcoming institutional expansions coming to the Miracle Mile museum district in Los Angeles, the area's urban design is sorely lacking. The problem, according to Miranda, is worse by the fact that... View full entry
Last week, Zumthor spoke about the project for the first time since museum officials presented a new plan in April. In an interview in the Zurich newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung first spotted by art writer William Poundstone, journalist Sabine von Fischer asked Zumthor about the controversy surrounding the museum’s proposal, and why the design has endured so many major changes. — Curbed LA
Curbed Los Angeles quotes the Swiss architect from his recent Neue Zürcher Zeitung interview: "Zumthor’s early experimentations within the grid-like limitations of the existing site left him unable to 'establish a meaningful relationship with the various architectural and urban elements' on the... View full entry
The newest design for the LACMA campus, masterminded by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, has received more criticism than your average museum expansion. LA Times writer Christopher Knight had some choice words about the futile nature of the proposal while Kate Wagner has dismissed it as little... View full entry
[...] it’s worth considering one of the issues that drove so much of the criticism: the ideal—said to be lost in the soon-to-be-transformed institution—of the museum as an “encyclopaedia” of collections, one necessitating a particular form of architecture permanently exhibiting its collection in chronologically sequenced galleries organised by medium and culture. — The Art Newspaper
Michael Conforti, former director of the Clark Art Institute and previously a curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art and also at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, writes in defense of LACMA's controversial plan of a considerably smaller 'expansion,' designed by Peter Zumthor, citing... View full entry
A local community advocacy group in Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit that has the potential to delay the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s $650m building project, which was approved by the county Board of Supervisors in April. Fix the City vs. the County of Los Angeles, dated 13 May and officially filed this week, challenges the Environmental Impact Report for the building scheme, claiming that it violates the California Environmental Quality Act [...] — The Art Newspaper
A new roadblock that could significantly delay the debated Zumthor LACMA makeover is taking shape, and the impact on the neighborhood's parking capacity is at the center of it. The Art Newspaper reports that "according to the lawsuit, the certified Environmental Impact Report 'fails to properly... View full entry
The clunky, amoebalike building cannot seem to decide between the digitally derived expressionism of such architects as Frank Gehry or Zaha Hadid, and Zumthor’s own brand of minimalist modernism. We’re left with a museum that benefits nobody and satisfies none of the needs of the art in its collection, nor of the public that will view it. And yet in April, it was approved... — New Republic
With the recent approval of LACMA's redesign back in April, Peter Zumthor's design for Los Angeles' iconic art museum has received an alarming reaction from the public, specifically those in the architecture community. In Archinect's most recent coverage of the museum, many of our readers shared... View full entry
Three weeks after we announced that Peter Zumthor's vision for LACMA has been approved, a suite of updated renderings have been released by the Swiss Studio that are significantly more detailed than those preceding them. Ground-level perspective, with Japanese Pavilion visible on the right... View full entry
The latest proposal for the LACMA campus, under the watch of famed Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, was unanimously approved by county supervisors earlier today. However, it is this latest iteration that received the harshest criticism: LA Curbed's Alissa Walker shared a general sentiment when she... View full entry
What was once a project designed to add nearly 50,000 square feet of critically needed gallery space committed to showcasing the museum’s impressive and still-growing permanent collection of paintings, sculptures and other global works of art has been turned on its head. Now, rather than enlarge the capacity, the scheme is to reduce the existing gallery square footage by more than 10,000 square feet. — Los Angeles Times
The criticism of Peter Zumthor's newest proposal for the LACMA campus offered by LA Times writer Christopher Knight is simple: it offers 10,000 less square footage than what it will replace! "I couldn’t name another art museum anywhere that has ever raised hundreds of millions of dollars to... View full entry
The project's latest iteration does not diverge significantly from its prior form, but does make adjustments to the Zumthor building's size and footprint. The most notable changes are a reduction in the square footage of the proposed building from approximately 390,000 to less than 350,000 square feet. Additionally, the removal of several planned galleries on the building's upper level will shorten its maximum height from 85 feet to 60 feet. — Urbanize Los Angeles
The recently published final environmental impact report for the ambitious $650m Los Angeles County Museum of Art redesign shows Peter Zumthor's swooping new building somewhat shorter and smaller than in previous planning iterations. Image: Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner/The BoundaryImage... View full entry
Eclectic is the word I would use to describe Archinect news in October: Bizarre lawsuits, advanced mapping algorithms and meticulous light displays were among the subjects of our most popular posts this month. ↑ Gaudi's Sagrada Familia fined $41 million for lack of building permit Arguably the... View full entry
The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has built ‘a gliding swan’ of a house in Devon that strikes a perfect balance between inside and out, whichever way you look — The Guardian
Peter Zumthor recently completed a meticulously crafted concrete house in the gently sloping English countryside of Devon—the Swiss architect's first permanent building in the UK after designing the Serpentine Gallery's 2011 summer pavilion in London. Photo: Jack Hobhouse/Living... View full entry
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... View full entry
“Zumthor has this archaic way of looking at architecture, but in a very contemporary way: his buildings are very durable,” [Sam Keller, director of the Fondation Beyeler,] said. “They are a little out of time and fashion, and we liked that.” — The New York Times
Last month, Peter Zumthor unveiled his winning scheme for the expansion of the Renzo Piano-designed Fondation Beyeler museum in Riehen, near Basel. In this recent New York Times article, Zumthor and Beyeler Director Sam Keller share more commentary and their aspirations for the milestone expansion. View full entry
After being unanimously chosen out of 11 renowned architecture firms, Peter Zumthor presented his vision for the expansion project of the reputable Fondation Beyeler Museum in Riehen, Basel. Joining the original Renzo Piano-designed museum building, the new expansion will provide more room for the... View full entry
