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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
[...] Peter Zumthor spoke with LACMA CEO [...] Michael Govan about the concepts behind his plans for LACMA's future presentation of its collections. Peter last spoke at LACMA in 2013 in conjunction with the exhibition The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA, when we were in the very early stages of thinking about LACMA's new building. Since that time, Peter and Michael have been working on the concepts behind the building, and Peter and his team have been refining the plans. — Unframed
The building design has a come a long way since its earlier, deliberately dark "inkblot" style."As for the change in color from dark to light?," Unframed writes, "Peter's thinking has evolved along with the building, and he wanted it to be elemental, with a mineral tone, very substantial but not... View full entry
Photographer James Ewing was given a studio and several weeks to creatively photograph architectural models made by students of the Columbia GSAPP between 1994 and 2003. The resulting work will form a show, "Stagecraft: Models and Photos," that opens at the GSAPP on February 9th.Featuring... View full entry
“They were conventional renderings, which I personally don't like so much," Peter Zumthor states in an interview with CLADnews, referring to the widely-criticized renderings of his proposed building for LACMA that were released in August. Relating that the renderings were created strictly for... View full entry
Last night, the Los Angeles County Museum held a public scoping meeting in advance of preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) for a planned Peter Zumthor-designed building. The Zumthor building would replace four existing structures and result in a net reduction of space amounting to... View full entry
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.
— peopleplacesspaces.com
The latest from LACMA on Archinect:Raw Rendering Ranters: Zumthor's 'undercooked' LACMA redesign on Archinect Sessions #76LACMA releases new renderings of proposed Peter Zumthor buildingFollowing major donations, Peter Zumthor's LACMA redesign moves forwardSunshine and noir: Peter Zumthor's new... View full entry
Peter Zumthor released new renderings for his LACMA redesign last week, and boy are people not impressed! We talk about the "undercooked" look of Zumthor's snaking concrete inkblot plan for the museum, and experiment with a new segment devoted to ranting on the podcast. You've been warned.Listen... View full entry
On a newly-launched website, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has released renderings of the proposed Peter Zumthor-designed building, which would replace four existing buildings designed by William Pereira. In total, the new building, prosaically named the Building for the Permanent... View full entry
It once seemed like a herculean, if not insurmountable, challenge – raising $600 million or more for an ambitious modernist building to serve as the new home for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Skeptics abounded when plans were first announced three years ago. But momentum now seems to be shifting in LACMA's favor with the announcement this week of two major donations that will push the fundraising campaign near the halfway point.
— Los Angeles Times
The donations together amount to the largest the museum has ever received. Elaine Wynn, a major collector and co-chair of the museum, pledged $50 million. Former Univision chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio has promised to give $25 million for the project.Both donations hinge on the successful launch... View full entry
ICYMI Amelia Taylor-Hochberg published a 3 part interview with Coy Howard, by students in John Southern's “Architectural Media and Publishing” Cultural Studies seminar at SCI-Arc. Ewa Lenart was impressed "Great Work and greatly inspiring teacher!" Plus, Nicholas Korody explored... View full entry
Many have challenged the logic of a Swiss building in Los Angeles [...]
In a sense, all of the criticisms can be boiled down to a single accusation: quality architecture does not belong in Los Angeles. [...]
Contextualism in Los Angeles requires more innovation than matching roof heights or aligning cornices; its ecology is one of large and oversized cultural objects that act as signposts amid sprawl.
— lareviewofbooks.org
Situating LACMA in "master builder" Peter Zumthor's career overall, architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (of the LA-based firm Johnston Marklee) discuss what distinguishes his work in a city with a somewhat confused attitude towards icons and context.More on Zumthor's LACMA:Is Zumthor's... View full entry
What will Zumthor's plan do for the museum's art and its audience? An art museum presents our histories in visual form; is LACMA making room for enough stories? [...]
Los Angeles is one of the world's four major centers of art production. Yet the museum has no permanent-collection galleries that tell a California-authored story of contemporary art. [...]
The proposed Zumthor building is also awfully expensive given its modest gain in exhibition space.
— latimes.com
Not to worry, Gowan said, we’ll just pop in extra entrances if and when we need them. — Los Angeles Review of Books
Veteran architecture critic Joseph Giovannini writes a long format, meticulous, repetitious, detailed, campy, foxy, fundamental, accurate, conjectural, civic, economic, organizational, institutional, back of the house, sobering, exemplifying, nerdy and most serious to date criticism of LACMA... View full entry
