The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has released the newest renderings of their planned Atelier Peter Zumthor-led $600 million renovation, and one thing in particular stands out: the building is no longer black.
While the third major revision to the design sees the building retain the overall shape of its previous iteration, many aspects have changed, including how the floating mass touches the ground and the facade’s new sandy color.
“It took me a while to sort of let go of the baby,” Zumthor told the LA Times’ Christopher Hawthorne. “But I think I’ve figured it out. I’m happy. It’s less slick and more substantial. Elemental. If I’m lucky the building will be like some kind of an Inca temple that’s always been in the sand and now they’ve excavated it — a really old piece that’s always been there.”
Rather than the oil-slick inspired look of previous iterations, Hawthorne notices, the most recent submission bears more in common with the architect’s “sober and deeply effective” Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany.
The color change allows the building’s exterior to match its interior finishes, giving the overall structure a monolithic sense similar to the pre columbian aesthetic of Frank Lloyd Wright’s California homes.
The building’s main gallery level will continue to span over the adjacent Wilshire Boulevard, and will now definitively touch down or seven thick legs providing access to the plaza below, which is being designed in collaboration with artist Robert Irwin and landscape architecture office Olin.
Inside, three types of gallery spaces (“pocket,” the smallest; “cluster”; and “tower,” which will be washed in natural light from high, hidden clerestory windows) will provide different atmospheres for the display of art. The upper concrete plate of the gallery level will now extend out past the floor-to-ceiling glass facade to provide shade for the spaces within.
Learn more about the most recent changes, here.
