LACMA / Zumthor

Last weekend I visited the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA. The project was designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. It's been in the works for two decades!

It's so LA to have a car in the museum, which obviously the point. It's a really good example of an Avanti, as is the Ruth Asawa.

I love this huge ceramics table, especially the lack of acrylic.

Doyle Lane bowl

They painted the metal brackets to match the glazes.

Another Lane

A big Natzler.

Bernard Kester with Laura Andreson is a nice LA moment. Beato is in the front right.

John Mason

I took some photos of some older things too, like this Mayan ceramic from 400-600 CE.

The plastics room.

Kay Sekimachi

These college buddies were also in the plastics gallery.

Clock by Frank Cumming III

Long Chair by Marcel Breuer

DCW by Charles and Ray Eames

With a nice Evans paper label from 1947-ish.

Dora De Larios

The Dora sculptures line the walkway that crosses over Wilshire.

The Latin American design section

Lina Bo Bardi

Quilts on the wall and African textiles in the vitrine.

This is a new view of the Japanese Pavilion by Bruce Goff.

Don't get me started on the palm trees.

One big win for architecture is giving the Goff some room to breath.

Tony Smith

Alexander Calder in front of the Erewhon Cafe : /

Source: LACMA

Source: Google Maps

Here is what it looked like with the old buildings.

Source: Google

It was a mess, with a series of additions.

The original complex was funded by Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the founder of Home Savings Bank. 

Founding director of LACMA, Richard Brown and trustee Norton Simon wanted Mies van der Rohe to design the new museum, but  Ahmanson refused to fund a design by him. The rejected concept was a Miesian "glass box."After vetoing Mies, Los Angeles firm William Pereira was selected. Brown resigned and moved to Texas, where he worked with Louis Kahn on the Kimbell Art Museum. Critics often speculate that a Mies-designed LACMA would have become a global architectural landmark.

LACMA finally got its European starchitect with Zumthor.

The design was altered in 1986 with the the Robert O. Anderson Building for 20th-century art. The115,000-square-foot addition was designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. It obscured the original Pereira buildings and did away with much of the plaza and water features. 

Source: LACMA

Edward Ruscha. Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire. 1965–68

There seemed to be very little uproar with the demolition of the Pereira buildings. Perhaps because the site had become such a mishmash.

Currently in the gift shop.

The original design specified curved glass to match the roofline but that proved to be too expensive.

I have mixed feelings about the building as whole. The interior layout all on the one floor really works. As does the way the collection is arranged in a fluid geographical and non-chronological way. It's a great building to view art and design.

The overall structure, particularly the way it crosses Wilshire, is very LA--in a good way. However, it also hints at a freeway overpass or parking garage with all that concrete. The fact that they didn't select an architect from the Americas is typical and annoying. The Erewhon Café also seems like an expensive self-deprecating joke. Decreasing the gallery space is also puzzling. Overall, I do like it more than I thought I would after actually being there. It certainly has its photogenic moments.