[edale]

I'm a LACMA member, and I'm pretty conflicted about the new museum structure. The old complex was a bit of a mess-- disjointed and hard to navigate around. I support the idea of tearing down those buildings and constructing a new, single building to house the majority of the galleries.

But there are several things to dislike about the new museum structure they are building. The biggest issue I have with it is that the new structure will have less gallery space than the buildings it's replacing. LACMA is only able to display a small fraction of its HUGE collection, and this new building should expand what is able to be shown, not reduce the gallery space!

I also don't love the idea of expanding over Wilshire when they already have such a huge space on the north side of the street. Get rid of the gargantuan waste of space that is the 'levitating mass' installation, and make better use of all the unused open space included in the museum complex. Going over Wilshire seems drastic and unnecessary when there is so much available space that could be utilized. I also don't love that the whole museum is going to be at the second level, potentially creating a huge void of activity at the ground level. People sit on the steps at the Met and Art Institute of Chicago, creating neat urban public spaces. This new design allows for none of that, and instead takes all the energy off the street. The building itself also seems quite bland, and the only thing interesting about it is the amorphous form of the building. The underside could become quite dark and uninviting unless careful consideration is taken to activate it.

Overall, I'm interested to see how this shakes out, but I think it's a pretty big missed opportunity to do something iconic and expand the space of the museum.