Zumthor's LACMA, Take 3

John Hill

25. March 2015

View of model seen from the south (Photo: Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner)

The latest design by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor for the $600 million expansion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art sees a simplification of its form and other changes.

The Pritzker Prize winner's initial design was unveiled in 2013, and about a year later the blobby shape referencing the adjacent tar pits was reconfigured to span across Wilshire Boulevard, so as not to disturb the tar pits themselves. In the latest design, unveiled by the LA Times, Zumthor has maintained the building's bridging of Wilshire but simplified the shape of the building. Per the article at the LA Times, LACMA Director Michael Govan said, "No one will call it a blob anymore. Peter hasn't given up the curve. But he's really, really reined it in."

"Exhibition level floor diagram showing gallery blocks surrounded by meandering gallery spaces" (Drawing: Atelier Peter Zumthor & Partner)

Other changes include reducing the number of entrances on the ground level from seven to two (one at the north and one at the south), eliminating the loop of perimeter galleries, and the incorporation of double-height galleries in the form of white boxes poking above the roofline of the museum's black mass.

The 400,000-square-foot museum is scheduled to break ground in 2018, but LACMA needs to raise about $500 million before that can happen.