LACMA’S future

Should the renovated LACMA remain at its current site? Mr. Broad is leading the call to revitalize downtown as a cultural center, with its centerpiece Disney Hall and a planned civic plaza park. With Mr. Broad’s leadership, why not build a new LACMA downtown?

Picture it: a Renzo Piano-designed midrise of stunning architectural integrity, anchored by the county’s center for the visual arts amid the performing arts complex, the restored city hall, a new arts high school, MOCA and an expanded Colburn School. A new LACMA on Grand Avenue could be a boost to that museum’s visibility and attendance, better serve the greater population, make access for students and tourists far easier and, possibly, be a revenue-generator for LACMA.

Jonathon Glus

Los Angeles

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Architect Renzo Piano’s plan to refurbish the L.A. County Museum of Art by hanging decorative screens and balancing a massive boom on top reminds me of a story I once heard about a San Francisco performance artist who spent an afternoon decorating all the dog droppings in his neighborhood with a spritz of whipped cream and a maraschino cherry.

Rem Koolhaas’ apparently discarded design was not only breathtaking to look at but also, by allowing visitors to choose between viewing art in a curated chronology or striking out in a different direction and making their own connections, offered a genuinely new way to experience the LACMA collection -- one very much in keeping with the way we experience media in the 21st century.

Why was this design abandoned? From Ouroussoff’s article, it seems clear that the Koolhaas plan was abandoned not for any flaws of its own but purely because of donor ego. Can you imagine if, after a bad year of fundraising, the design for Disney Hall had been abandoned for a cheaper alternative of draping screens around the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and adding a connecting spine between it and the Ahmanson?

Michael Mayhew

Tujunga