LACMA Builds Its Future

Forbes

2 days ago

David Geffen Galleries at LACMA; exterior view southeast toward Wilshire Boulevard with Tony Smith's Smoke (1967) in foreground, photo © Iwan Baan, courtesy of LACMA
'The superstructure is the structure,' said Michael Govan, director and CEO of the Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA) said of the new Peter Zumthor-designed building that recently opened for a press preview. There is no art in the building yet, and the official opening isn't until April 2026, but Govan wanted a moment of celebration for the completion of this 110,000 square feet gallery with no columns for which three of LACMA's original buildings were demolished, and which snakes across Wilshire Boulevard, where there will be a new a cafe, a restaurant, a family education center, and a 300-seat theater.
It is hard to believe that Los Angeles didn't really have a contemporary art museum before LACMA opened in 1965. Over the years the William Pereira designed campus meant to invoke an 'art acropolis' with gleaming modernist buildings each named for leading donors such as Bing, Ahmanson, and Lytton (later renamed for Armand Hammer) created no excitement and no cohesion.
For the last several decades, as long as I've lived in Los Angeles, there have been plans to come up with a master plan for LACMA. Over the years this has involved building the additions of the Renzo Piano BCAM building with its Pompidou like outdoor escalator – which originally might have held the Broad Collection but, as I predicted at the time, proved too difficult to execute to Eli Broad's satisfaction, and the Resnick Pavillon, which in many ways became LACMA's permanent temporary exhibition space.
Several starchitects such as Piano made proposals, several were announced, none were built.
Then came Michael Govan. Director and CEO of LACMA. Govan's detractors like to say he has an 'edifice complex.' Which I repeat because it's such a good line. However, it is also true that he was working for Thomas Krens at the Guggenheim at the time they built the Frank Gehry Bilboa branch of the museum, and then when leading the DIA art Foundation, he opened DIA Beacon, which is a terrific space. So, like many a bromide, there is a grain of truth to it.
LACMA was in need of a unified campus (and some of its buildings needed to be torn down for reasons of seismic safety). Govan's solution which was both maximalist and in some ways minimalist, involved what seemed an outlandish idea, a Peter Zumthor-designed one story columnless pavilion with floor to ceiling glass, an amorphous amoeba like shape, that would cross Wilshire Boulevard, and would cost $720 Million dollars.
The critics were many. Complaints included that the new structure offered no more exhibition square footage (perhaps even less) than the former buildings; that the floor to ceiling windows on all the sides of the structure would absorb too much heat and would make showing art inside difficult if not impossible; and that the use of such construction materials as concrete was not environmentally sound. Having a structure that crossed Wilshire Boulevard seemed a folly. Critics found the Zumthor building design itself was undistinguished, looking more like a spaceship that had landed on the tar pits than a museum-worthy building. But all that was before construction was complete.
I will make a little detour here to speak about the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. The Barnes, like the Gardner in Boston, and the Frick in New York, was one person's collection displayed in the collector's home, arranged by them.
At a certain point, a group controlling the Barnes decided to build a new building so the collection could be better seen and preserved. Lawsuits ensued as well as a very good documentary, The Art of the Steal , which was made before the new building opened and which made a very compelling argument that doing so was a travesty.
Now, if you've been to the Barnes recently, you know that reality proved the naysayers wrong. However, before it actually opened, no one could imagine how great the newly installed Barnes was going to be.
I bring this up because clearly LACMA believes the same is true for their new building. Given that there were so many objections to the building, it was very canny of Michael Govan and LACMA to offer a walkthrough of the building itself before even one piece of art is installed inside. The reality of the building doesn't quell all objections, but it does prove that Govan could raise the necessary funds to build it, and that he got the building completed.
As an optimist, here's the good news: The new Geffen Galleries, as they are called, are definitely a statement building. If Los Angeles is a city where distinctive architecture is also outdoor sculpture, then LACMA, like Disney Hall, will become a destination that, like it or not, tourists and residents alike will want to see.
The long outdoor steps leading to the galleries may become a place where people hang out, like the steps of the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York. Or you could have LA health enthusiasts 'doing the stairs' as they do in Santa Monica.
In demolishing the prior buildings, they reclaimed three-and-a-half acres that becomes public space. Going to LACMA may gain the buzz as a public square as well as the locus for an inexpensive date or a family outing. There will be new large outdoor public sculptures that promise to be as instagrammable as Chris Burden's collection of street lamps.
Finally, the completion of the new LACMA building, together with the opening of the metro stop there will complete the transformation of that stretch of Wilshire Boulevard into an arts district that stretches from the Tar Pits on the East Side of LACMA to the Academy Museum and Petersen Auto Museum on the West.
David Geffen Galleries at LACMA; view northwest at dusk from exhibition level toward Resnick Pavilion, photo © Iwan Baan, courtesy of LACMA
As for the interior of the building itself, there are also several positives to report. The overhangs create shade, and custom created light-porous chromium curtains filter the sunlight and the heat. The buildings' floor to ceiling windows do afford many new views of Los Angeles, not just of the rest of the LACMA Campus and the Academy Museum but also the Hollywood Hills, as well as new view over the LA Brea Tar Pits that will increase the land available to that institution.
There is a gorgeous new view of the Bruce Goff designed Pavillon for Japanese Art that makes new that unique building's design, as well as of the tar pits. Finally, when standing on the crossover above Wilshire Boulevard, the view West is incredible and will surely become a selfie and Instagram magnet.
On the south side of Wilshire where the building ends will also be a new 300 seat theater where films can be shown, performances staged, conversations held. And the building has been constructed in such a way that it can actually move and lessen the impact of an earthquake and aftershock.
Aerial view of LACMA buildings, including David Geffen Galleries in context of Miracle Mile, photo © Iwan Baan, courtesy of LACMA
Now, as to my reservations. Disney Hall is a thing of beauty, poetry even. The Broad Museum with its concrete veil is certainly striking. LACMA's Geffen Gallery may be exciting, interesting, but a thing of beauty? Maybe not so much. I have read one critic say the building looks like an airport air terminal. That's not completely wrong. It is eye-catching, and even elegant — a minimalist work done in a maximalist size. But that is not the same as a thing of beauty.
Inside the building is all one large columnless space with grey concrete floors and walls, with several rooms, most of which struck me as too small for separate exhibitions and somewhat claustrophobic.
The Galleries have been purposely designed so as to have, in Govan's words, 'no one in the front and no one in the back.' No given place to begin viewing and no end. The buildings floor-to-ceiling windows are meant to signal transparency from the outside world, and from the galleries looking out to LA.
Govan wants with these galleries to 'Reinvent Art History for the 21rst century.' The art will be installed in such a way that one can wander and make discoveries at every turn, without a given beginning or end. There was some mention of grouping works 'by Ocean' (I'm not sure if that is accurate).
What most concerns me is that if there is no set beginning or end to how the works in the collection are displayed, no collection of old and contemporary masters on permanent view, no progression in what we see, no visual and didactic narrative informing the viewer... Will the visitor be lost? Will making everything of equal importance mean that nothing matters? It could take LACMA several years of trial and error to find their way. Time will tell.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 26: Kamasi Washington performs during the LACMA First Look Reception on June 26, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor LACMA) Getty Images for LACMA
In the meantime, LACMA threw a memorable party for its new building. LACMA estimates some 6000 people showed up over several viewings. The art world turned out in force, including Charles Gaines, Ed Ruscha and Alison Saar. LACMA members also attended in great numbers, marching up the new stairs four deep. Kamasi Washington performed, leading some 100 musicians staged in various corners of the new structure. It was the kind of night that is too rare in LA, and I was happy to be there.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 26: Guests attend the LACMA First Look Reception on June 26, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor LACMA) Getty Images for LACMA
When LACMA opened in 1965, it was LA's first contemporary and modern art museum. Since then, the Pasadena Art Museum became the Norton Simon, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) opened downtown, The Skirball, The Getty Center, the Hammer, and more recently The Broad, have all taken root. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art will open next year. To regain its prominence as a cultural destination, perhaps what LACMA needed was a hard reset. And a big dream. In the new LACMA it has both.