Last week, the County of Los Angeles released a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed major re-design of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. A public comment period for the document will now be open until December 15.
According to the report:
“The Project includes a replacement Museum Building and a new parking facility referred to as the Ogden Parking Structure. The proposed 387,500-square-foot Museum Building would replace four buildings within LACMA East collectively comprising approximately 392,871 gross square feet: the Ahmanson Building, the Hammer Building, the Art of the Americas Building, and the Bing Center, which contains the LACMA Café, the Dorothy Brown Auditorium (which provides 116 seats), and the Bing Theater (which provides 600 seats), and the outdoor covered areas in the Los Angeles Times Central Court. Overall, the Museum Building would result in a decrease in the square footage of museum buildings by approximately 5,371 square feet and a reduction in the combined maximum theater size from 716 seats to approximately 300 seats.”
Also:
“The Museum Building is designed by architect Peter Zumthor and is proposed with seven semi-transparent structures at the ground level (referred to as Pavilions), that would support an elevated, continuous, transparent main exhibition level. The Museum Building would extend over Wilshire Boulevard to the Spaulding Lot. The design of the Museum Building would also enhance the outdoor experience for museum visitors and guests by expanding outdoor landscaped plazas, public programming and educational spaces, sculpture gardens, and native and drought tolerant vegetation that would be integrated with the Museum Building and existing uses within Hancock Park. The Ogden Parking Structure would be developed southwest of the intersection of Ogden Drive and Wilshire Boulevard on three contiguous parcels owned by Museum Associates (referred to as the Ogden Lot). The Ogden Parking Structure would replace the existing surface parking currently on the Spaulding Lot and would provide the same number of spaces currently located on the Spaulding Lot.”
The Draft EIR (like the final EIR, which will follow), serves as “the environmental document for all actions associated with the project” and, in general, finds that the project “would not have the potential to cause significant impacts” to things like local agricultural, forestry and biological resources, habitat or natural community conservation plans, mineral resources, population and housing, police protection, schools, parks/recreation areas, libraries, air traffic patterns and solid waste. It would also, according to the findings, not cause things like objectionable odors, liquefaction, landslides, hazards to the public or environment through the use, transport or disposal of hazardous materials, “wildland” fires, or placement of houses or structures within a 100-year flood plain. And it would not contain hazardous design features or other harmful elements.
For the full 186-page report, see the link above…or you can view a physical copy at one of three Los Angeles Public Libraries:
Los Angeles Central Library
630 West Fifth Street
Los Angeles, CA 90071
Fairfax Branch Library
161 South Gardner Street
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Memorial Branch Library
4625 West Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90019
There will also be a community meeting to provide an overview of the project and the DEIR findings on Tuesday, November 7, from 6-8 p.m. at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) building. (Parking will be validated at the Pritzker Parking Garage, accessible from 6th St.) The meeting will have an open house format; no decisions will be made at the event.
Public comments on the DEIR can be submitted at the meeting, via e-mail to [email protected], by fax to (213) 626-7827, or by paper mail to:
Peter Burgis, Capital Projects
County of Los Angeles, Chief Executive Office
500 West Temple Street, Room 754
Los Angeles, CAÂ 90012
