LACMA Would Have to Demolish Current Buildings to Complete $650 Million Expansion Project

The city's beloved institution may be headed in a drastically new direction.

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Now that we know the LACMA isn't actually going to acquire the MOCA, as the latter has chosen to enter a partnership with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. instead, we've learned that the LACMA is still looking to expand in other ways. 

Director Michael Govan is asking for the board and LA county's approval to move forward with a $650 million capital campaign that will expand the institution. Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor would design the new building, which would mean demolishing the majority of LACMA's current structures. We imagine that similar to the SFMOMA's planned expansion project, this would close the museum for at least a year (SFMOMA will be closed for two years starting June 2, 2013).

The Art Newspaper reports that Zumthor would focus on clear, curved design to offer easy previews of exhibitions (as it is now, one must fully enter an exhibition to see any glimpse of it). TAN also remembers LACMA's expansion approval by the museum board in 2001, for a new building by Rem Koolhaas, which they canceled after two years of being unable to raise enough money.

Angelenos curious about what the expansion means for the institution and their city can visit an exhibition exploring the proposed building, titled The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA, from June 9 to September 13. 

[via TheArtNewspaper]

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