Dear fellow LACMA Lover,
Thank you for joining more than 3960 concerned citizens who have signed the petition urging the Los Angeles County Supervisors to reconsider their approval of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for LACMA's redevelopment plan.
Since we last wrote to you, nearly all of the buildings on the 1965 William Pereira campus have been demolished, the land scraped flat awaiting the start of construction for the unfunded and wildly unpopular Peter Zumthor building.
This week in the New Yorker, Dana Goodyear contributes a lengthy profile of Zumthor and the grave challenges that he faces as LACMA director Michael Govan’s handpicked architect.
It is a very sad story about a gifted artist with a bad instincts and massive chip on his shoulder, a manipulative museum director and the politicians and billionaire board members who allow themselves to be seduced by his deliberate misrepresentations of his destructive plans for the public institution, both the physical plant and the care of the collections.
As you read the story, look out for us (Kim and Richard, representing all of you LACMA Lovers League petitioners and the Save LACMA nonprofit). We’re honored to be the voice of reason, culture and responsible stewardship in a story that the whole world is reading.
And you can, too:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/12/the-iconoclast-remaking-los-angeles-most-important-museum
LACMA has been demolished. The museum’s PR team continues to try to create a positive spin. But there is no hiding from the fact that the Zumthor project is a disaster, hated by the public, reviled by the critics, underfunded, unsuitable for the current or long term needs of the institution.
Now through Dana Goodyear’s reporting, we know that it is already being value engineered, before a single pound of concrete has been poured, with the architect being personally shaken down to pay for a small shift he wanted to make in the design.
Los Angeles deserves better. So does Peter Zumthor.
It's time for LACMA to cut its losses and admit there is no great Peter Zumthor building to be had under the impossible restrictions that Michael Govan has created. Instead of moving forward, LACMA should push the pause button. The ruins of the Pereira campus can become an art park, where Angelenos can talk about what they want in a new museum.
It’s not a value engineered, miniature Peter Zumthor building.
In other recent press clips, Rob Hollman of the Save LACMA nonprofit appeared on Spectrum News 1 to explain why demolishing the museum during a pandemic is a bad look for a County institution facing deep budget cuts. https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/news/2020/05/12/lacma-responds-to-community-push-back-as-demolition-continues
Rachel Reyes writes in Los Angeleno: “Along with many other community members, I am thoroughly perplexed by the ongoing redesign of LACMA’s 20-acre campus. It almost feels like a joke.”
https://losangeleno.com/opinion/lacma-demo-michael-govan/
In Curbed, Alissa Walker mourns the lack of any public voice in the destruction of the museum. https://www.curbed.com/2020/9/18/21445716/lacma-demolition-2020-new-building
In the New York Review of Books, Joseph Giovannini writes "The Demolition of LACMA: Art Sacrificed to Architecture." https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/10/02/the-demolition-of-lacma-art-sacrificed-to-architecture/
And the museum puts the director’s house on the market for $6 Million, as Michael Govan is asked to downsize his rent-free accommodations. In the real estate listing, we were troubled to observe evidence that the supposedly brilliant Govan has scorched the living room by lighting the fireplace without opening the flue. We should trust this man with a billion dollar public building project?
Please keep sharing the petition link (http://chng.it/PBQw6hhzdX) with your friends who love LACMA and want it to remain at the heart of our city's culture and community. And stay tuned for updates as we have them.
Yours for Los Angeles,
Kim Cooper & Richard Schave
The LACMA Lovers League