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Larchmont Chronicle’s
MIRACLE MILE 2024
MULLIONS (the vertical uprights between the floor and ceiling that will support the tall window wall exterior of the David Geffen Galleries) are being installed at the west end of the new building. In the far distance on the right, scaffolding surrounding the new theater space glistens at the building’s eastern end on the south side of Wilshire Boulevard. Adjoining the plaza at this western end will be the museum’s main restaurant. To get a sense of scale, note — just over the fence and at the bottom of the rectangular building base — the full-height doorways into the base. Photo by Gary Leonard
LACMA Geffen Galleries construction on schedule
By Suzan Filipek he money has been raised — the $750 million goal, plus more — and construction is moving along at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Building LACMA, as the ambitious building project is called, will culminate by the end of the year with completion of the expansive reinforced concrete David Geffen Galleries building designed by Pritzker prize-winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The building is named for its principal donor, the record executive, entrepreneur and DreamWorks co-founder.
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The two-level building (plus basement), will house the museum’s permanent collection. It reaches across Wilshire Boulevard in a bold statement for art and culture in a city known for innovation. The plaza level will feature a restaurant, cafés, educational facilities, a museum store and a theater. The upper level is a collection of interior gallery rooms surrounded by a meandering set of sunlit galleries and passageways with views of the surrounding park and city. LACMA had humble beginnings, as almost an afterthought in the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and
Art in 1913. In 1965, the County Art Museum moved to its own, dedicated space at its present site in the county’s Hancock Park between Wilshire Boulevard and Sixth Street, just east of Fairfax Avenue. LACMA has continued to grow and change ever since. The Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) and the Resnick Exhibition Pavilion (opening in 2008 and 2010, respectively) were designed for the LACMA campus by Pritzker Prize winner Renzo Piano and his Renzo Piano Building Workshop. This latest, 347,500-square-foot project by (Please turn to Page 13)