tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182022.post5007304909129774232..comments2023-10-17T17:35:50.550-07:00Comments on LA Cowboy: Is the Peter Zumthor Redesign of LACMA the Architectural Equivalent of "Beyond Earth'?Brady Westwaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00324741206315152948noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7182022.post-68375330276570776032014-06-14T18:28:09.945-07:002014-06-14T18:28:09.945-07:00How can I say this? The design for this building ...How can I say this? The design for this building is an unmitigated disaster. Let me add a few reasons to the negative review here. For one thing, I say work backward from the thing that really works--Chris Burden's Street Lamps. How would they possibly co-exist with this black blob of a new building? Second, I paid a visit to Zumthor's Kolumba Museum in Cologne, Germany. It is a HIGHLY conceptual design, mixing the old of a church ruin, with the new of a modern building. So, just as the LACMA design conceptualizes the tar pits, so does the Kolumba Museum conceptualize the old and new. And then inside the Kolumba, the artwork shown is, you guessed it, a combination of old and new. Indeed, the style of individual rooms mixes, again, the old and new. This is not the approach that a public building for display of all different kinds of art requires. Despite the somewhat disappointing Piano designs of the recent buildings, at least they are open and flexible. And here's one last small point, but perhaps telling. As we walked around the Kolumba, it seemed as though the many museum guards there were following us. After a time, I realized that they were. Why? Because the step from one room to another each had a half-step against which the guards were warning us not to trip. This is not an architect whose building, even in its operating details, will support thousands of daily visitors. It may not be this half-step issue, but I guarantee it will be another. It is important that the Board of LACMA put a stop to Govan's Folly asap! Maybe the solution is to just let Piano finish off what he started and then get on with the most important function, organizing and financing as many art shows as possible.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com