Was This Really Necessary?

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Hello Everyone:

Yours Truly is here with your regular reminder to Do the Five.

 Speaking of COVID-19, the White House announced today that the states were free to re-open schools and businesses ordered shut, as part of shelter-in-place orders, beginning May 1, 2020.  This was a response to governors in the Midwest and both coasts banding together to form regional collectives that will guide their path forward.  As part of the White House's response, it issued advisory guidelines intended to speed up bringing back the United States.  The guidelines contain benchmarks, including a substantial decrease in new infections.  The phased approach also encouraging social distancing and good hygiene practices.  We shall see if this works.  Meanwhile, Yours Truly was jogging past the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and got inspired for today's post.

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The venerable Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been a significant part of the local, regional, national, and international arts and cultural terrain for over fifty years.  Throughout its history, LACMA has showcased a broad exploration of artistic genres, ranging from the traditional to contemporary; spanning time, geography, genre, culture, gender and, sexual orientation to make it the biggest encyclopedic museum in the West.  The William Pereira buildings became landmarks in their own right.  The late Chris Burden's installation, Urban Lights (2008) and Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass (2012) became internationally recognized landmarks.  More than this, LACMA has so become part of local and state cultural history that its demolition has caused many to grieve its loss and wonder, was it all really necessary?

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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Was it really necessary to begin demolition on LACMA, especially during the pandemic?  Yes, demolition has been scheduled for months but the fact that it is actually happening, now, is a shock to the senses.  Recently retired Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan lamented the loss of Bing Theater (a great place to see a movie),

Oh my god, I'd not focused on the fact that LACMA's 600-seat Leo Bing Theater, one of the best of L.A. movie showcases was about to be demolished.  What a shock. (kcrw.com; Apr. 15, 2020; date accessed Apr. 16, 2020)

In the interest of full disclosure, Yours Truly is relieved that the Pavilion for Japanese Art is not being demolished.

Rest in Peace Leo Bing Theater
Background: the Pavilion for Japanese Art (Bruce Goff, 1988)
latimes.com

Both the City and County of Los Angeles have deemed building construction an essential business during the pandemic.  Los Angeles has adopted an expansive definition, as part of its stay-at-home order of essential construction, allowing

...any work necessary to to build, operate, maintain or manufacture essential infrastructure, including without limitation construction of commercial, office and institutional buildings, residential buildings, and housing (curbed.com; Mar. 30, 2020; date accessed Apr. 16, 2020).

Mayor Eric Garcetti also announced "that the city is forming a special coronavirus inspection team that will visit construction sites to make sure safety protocols are followed" (Ibid)

Honestly, Yours Truly can understand the importance of maintaining the sidewalks and streets but tearing down the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and replacing it with something that will have 10-percent less gallery space?  How is this possible?

Back of the Ahmanson Gallery
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
latimes.com

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, like many institutions around the world, have had their daily life upended by the virus: shuttering galleries, forcing administrative and curatorial staff to work remotely.  Fortunately, no one was laid off at the onset of quarantine.  However, work on the floor plans have not been affected by the pandemic. 

Demolition began earlier this month and was not publicly addressed until last Thursday, April 9, in a blog post on the museum's website, three days after demolition began and two days after the Los Angeles Times published a story on the matter.  The museum blog post described the controversial project as an important source of job creation (latimes.com; Apr. 15, 2020; date accessed Apr. 16, 2020).  This raises the question of "where exactly things stand with the building's design--specifically plans for the interior, which have yet to be shown to the public" (Ibid)  Conceptual renderings of proposed gallery spaces, but no final plans have been released (Ibid).

Museum director Michael Govan spoke to the Times in February, saying that "the plans would be made public sometime in March.." (Ibid)  As a result of the pandemic, release of the plans have postponed.  Mr. Govan wrote in an email,

We have spent the last month 24/7 navigating the COVID-19 crisis,... Delayed for good reasons, we are still working to finish our better presentation about the gallery designs that is more complete, including the curatorial perspectives that shaped the program (Ibid)

He expects to have more descriptive materials about how the galleries work within the next 4-6 weeks (Ibid)

Yours Truly can just see it now, needlessly knock down iconic buildings, clear the rubble, and leave an empty lot until the plans are finalized and approved some time in the future.  How do Angelinos feel about the demolition of a beloved institution during a pandemic?

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When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened in 1965, it was greeted with a combination of excitement and dismay.  Angelinos were excited to finally have a real museum to signify its cultural maturity.  Architectural aficionados were dismayed by the William Pereira design because they saw it as a missed opportunity to have something more adventurous by Modern master Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe.  The Art of Americas, by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, was an eighties addition.  Two citizen groups will not allow LACMA to go gently into that good night. 

One group, Save LACMA, is currently working to place a November ballot measure that would cap the county's (i.e. taxpayer's) financial obligation to the project and call for a public member to be present at board meetings (kcrw.com; Apr. 15, 2020).  The organization argues "that its board, made of millionaires and billionaires, is carelessly putting a huge burden on regular taxpayers to pay $450 million out the $750 million cost of construction" (Ibid)  Further, "...county funding, including $117,5 million released last April, should be reallocated toward medical supplies for hospitals during the pandemic" (Ibid)

Noble sentiment and having L.A. County taxpayers pay about 60-percent of the construction cost does seem like an unfair burden, especially when the return that investment will not be felt immediately.  Ron Hollman, the head of Save LACMA said,

Sadly, LACMA is currently hurting the community rather than help heal it, which is, not what an arts institution should do. Demolishing the Bing, and the rest of the original campus, at this time has been particularly heatless (Ibid)

Director Govan begs to differ, calling the project "an investment in the city's future, saying it would be an engine of job creation and economic recovery (Ibid)

Mr. Govan said "he expects up to 4000 jobs to created for the project over the coming years and it is almost 90% funded" (Ibid)

To give you an indication of a timeline: demolition is expected to be completed this summer and building is scheduled for completion by the end of 2023.

Was it really necessary to demolish the existing building and replace it with something that is nothing more than a vanity project?  No, the time and money would have been better spent renovating the existing buildings and buttressing local arts education and programs.