Hello Everyone:
Welcome to a new week on the blog. Once again, Blogger is beset by allergies and accompanying Blogger mum to the doctor was not helping matters. Nevertheless, Yours Truly is here with a little more to say on the state of things at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
| Seal of the County of Los Angeles scpr.org |
First, the cost per square foot is currently $500 too much and the proposed plan undermines the museum's claim to being the largest encyclopedic art museum, west of Mississippi (latimes.com; date accessed Apr. 8, 2019). Mr. Knight wrote in today's issue of newspaper, "I blanched when LACMA Director Michael Govan told my colleague Deborah Vankin in a Times interview [Ibid; Apr. 6, 2019] published online Saturday that new building...is about $1873, plus or minus, per square foot" (Ibid; Apr. 8, 2019)
| The Broad Museum Los Angeles, California broadfoundation.org |
Christopher Knight is astonished, "The $500 difference is astounding. On a 347,500-square-foot building, that' a premium of more than $170 million. Building costs do vary for city to city, but that disparity is more than steep. It's precipitous" (Ibid; Apr. 8, 2019)
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| Los Angeles County Museum of Art redesign latimes.com |
Deborah Vankin, a colleague of Mr. Knight, spoke with LACMA Director Michael Govan about the proposed redesign. Mr. Govan is preparing for the milestone meeting with the Board of Supervisors, who may or may not approve the $650-million project and authorize $117,5 million in county funds for construction (Ibid Apr. 6, 2019), is facing a storm of criticism over the current design iteration ((Ibid; Mar. 29, 2019). The plans were part of the final environmental impact report (Ibid; Mar. 28, 2019) , released on March 22, featured alterations that amounted to a 10-percent reduction in size--for 387,500 per square feet to 347,000 square feet (Ibid; Apr. 6, 2019).
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| LACMA Director Michael Govan mrporter.com |
In a conversation with the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Govan defended the new building and appeared unconcerned about the critics. When asked to reconcile spending a lot of money to reduce gallery space at the same time the collection is expanding, he replied,
We were aware this building project would not as big as the current space it was replacing because that was a jumbled mess of galleries. We were trying to replace the space; it was replacement project. We already added on 100,000 square feet between [the recent permanent additions] BCAM and the Resnick Pavilion,....
It made more sense to distribute our exhibition volume--the experience of LACMA--toward the new property. So that was an objective: lighten and open park space. We'll have 220,000 square feet total for LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard between four building [BCAM, the Resnick Pavilion, the new Zumthor building and the museum's Bruce Goff-design Pavilion for Japanese Art] (Ibid)
When asked about the planned galleries along the perimeters and how the light levels may make it hard to display the art, Mr. Govan responded,
No. The building is balanced between light that is totally controlled and light that is natural. So what you find in the building is lots of galleries with no natural light--65% has very little or zero natural light--and the rest of the museum has this beautiful space of all kinds of art that is less light sensitive...
...We want a balance of closed-in spaces and light spaces because a lot of studies have shown that allowing natural is not only awesome for three-dimensional objects, to make them more lively, but it's also wonderful for people because it reduces the famous museum fatigue. (Ibid)
Michael Govan was also not worried about tomorrow's Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor's vote. Nor did he appeared concerned about the fact that cost of the project ballooned from $600 to $650 million. However, Mr. Govan might want to be a wee more concerned that fundraising for the new building has slowed. As of last July, the museum raised $550 million (Ibid; July, 3, 2018) and by December, that amount stood at $560 million. When asked what happened, Mr. Govan answered,
The plan was that we would get all the "close money" raised first, meaning friends and family. So the board, the name of the building, Mr. [David] Geffen, the [A. Jerrold] Perenchio estate, those are friends and family because they're close.... There's a lot of skepticism out there we're just waiting for the county approval to really launch the public phase of the campaign to finish it.... (Ibid, Apr. 6, 2019)
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| The Southwest Museum Los Angeles, Ca laconservancy.org |
One of the questions Deborah Vankin posed to Mr. Govan is whether the Los Angeles County Museum of Art was interested in acquiring the Southwest Museum. The Autry Museum, its current owner, wants to transfer ownership of the Southwest (Ibid; Mar. 26, 2019) and is fielding proposals from interested parties. Mr. Govan said that the matter was discussed but the cost of seismic upgrades for older buildings is quite high. Although, LACMA is quite busy with the Peter Zumthor-designed building, it would be open to a partnership and collection loans.
Finally, in response to critics of the new design iteration of the buildings, Mr. Govan enthused,
I'm just going to say, for the record--and I believe it fully--that through the process of refinements, we now have a better building. People may not be able to see that in graphic form, because they're thinking about pictures and renderings. But when you think about the experience of the building, and how it will deal with light and shadow, and how it will feel, I'm 100% convinced it's a better building than anything that's been presented as part of the design process.
And it's really big--I don't know that wants to be bigger than it is. (Ibid Apr. 6, 2019)
Regardless of what the outcome of tomorrow's Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor's meeting is, one thing is certain, Los Angeles does deserve a world class museum. One has to wonder if the current version of the Peter Zumthor-designed building is the right one? Yes, it is several dozen major steps up from the infamous light absorbing Black Blob but one has to wonder why all the emphasis on the exterior? After all, a museum is only as good as its contents and having 10 percent less exhibit space means that the beloved Los Angeles County Museum of Art is undermining its long cherished role as the largest encyclopedic museum west of Mississippi.
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