If you are keeping score, chalk one up for history…for the tar and all of it’s pre-historic treasures still to be unearthed.
The architectural team working on the proposed transformation of the LACMA campus, led by architect Peter Zumthor, presented a new look at what the future of the LACMA campus could be. The most talked about feature of this new vision, unveiled by LACMA on Tuesday, is the bridge expansion south across Wilshire Boulevard into the parking lot between Spaulding Avenue and Stanley Avenue.
According to the New York Times, this plan has the support of the Board of the Natural History Museum – the group that oversees the Page Museum and shares the Hancock Park property with LACMA (Hancock Park as in the park, not the neighborhood). Understandably, the Board of the Natural History Museum was critical of the original Zumthor plan, which would have expanded the LACMA footprint on their shared property and severely impacted two-thirds of the tar pits.
This design appears to have been vetted with the key power brokers – Mayor Garcetti, County Supervisors and their Page Museum neighbors. All are supporting the new vision.
LACMA will begin a more extensive analysis of the plan and then begin a capital campaign in 2015 to raise funds for the project – expected to be in the $600 Million – $1 Billion range.
Read more:
New York Times:Â A Contemporary Design Yields to the Demands of Prehistory
LA Times: LACMA Changes Building Plan to Accommodate La Brea Tar Pits
As a member of the board of NHM, I am very pleased to see the new design that respects and preserves the priceless tar pits. We are making new discoveries all the time and the fossil record at the La Brea tar pits is an incredible, unique in the world treasure. LACMA’s leadership has pledged to work together with NHM scientists throughout the project to protect and preserve the tar pits. And, if completed as proposed, LACMA visitors will have an extraordinary view of the pits and the Page Museum as they walk along Mr. Zumthor’s “endless glass veranda.”