Thread by @awalkerinLA

This morning, LA County's Board of Supervisors will vote on a new building for LACMA. @LangeAlexandra and I walked the campus discussing the role of museums in cities, the controversy surrounding the design, and how the new LACMA must meet the street. la.curbed.com/2019/4/8/18300…

When LACMA revealed the original Peter Zumthor design back in 2013, the museum planned a huge exhibition featuring a detailed architectural model and additional context for the design that was publicly displayed for months. la.curbed.com/2013/6/6/10235…

Since then, the design has undergone at least four revisions, with major changes to the size, shape, color, form, materials, and even the location of the building. la.curbed.com/2019/3/25/1828…

What are LA's County Supervisors voting on today? We're not exactly sure. We've seen three drawings, shared last month. Normally you'd have a bit more information about a project if you were allocating $117.5 million for it to move forward.

https://twitter.com/KnightLAT/status/1115607865262137344

Here's where you can watch today's Board of Supervisors meeting. The LACMA discussion looks like it's last on the agenda. bos.lacounty.gov/Board-Meeting/…

Update: @SupJaniceHahn just said they'd be addressing the LACMA item *second*—it's item 41 but they'll be discussing it next!

IT'S TIME. First up at the mic is LACMA director Michael Govan. Here's his LA Times op-ed from last weekend defending the project latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/…

"There have been questions about if this facility is large enough? It is," says Govan. "We have space to expand, we have property, but while I'm at the helm, I want to develop LACMA as a sharing institution." Talks about satellite campuses and roving trucks for art.

“I think everyone knows me here. I am a builder. I want to increase and maximize our benefit to the public," says Govan. "We are expanding as fast as we can.” Reminder that this plan to expand the campus was proposed SIX YEARS AGO

Words of support from @NHMLA, which worked with LACMA to re-site the project when the original design tread too close to the La Brea Tar Pits. Now @mridleythomas is talking about "LACMA's path." He's in favor of it.

"There will always be critiques," says @SheilaKuehl, who urges people to go online and read about the "insanity of frank Gehry" when Disney Hall was first proposed. "People always agree or disagree about design—and it does mean something."

Kuehl notes that it's a particularly interesting project to discuss because the bridge over Wilshire actually would join the 2nd and 3rd supervisorial districts! "And that's symbolic," she says. She's listening to all concerns, but @SheilaKuehl will vote to support the project.

Good thoughts from @HildaSolis about bringing the same level of interest and investment to other communities. @kathrynbarger now making several mentions of "misinformation" in the media. She asks Govan if the new building's design will prevent shows from coming to LA. He says no.

They just announced the list of guest speakers. Among them are...

🚨 BRAD PITT 🚨

🚨 DIANE KEATON 🚨

@SupJaniceHahn appears very starstruck: "I love how you just threw in Brad Pitt casually."

"I love architecture, so I'm excited to be here," says Brad Pitt, who is the first person at the LACMA hearing to pronounce Zumthor correctly.

"There's no way to understand his work from a computer-generated image," says Pitt of Zumthor's work. "You really have to stand in them to see his mastery of light and shadow." WHICH IS WHY WE'D LIKE TO SEE AN ARCHITECTURAL MODEL

"This architect, Mr. Zumthor, has been honored with 16 awards," says Diane Keaton, name-checking the Pritzker and RIBA. "So if you were an actor, that means you would have won 14 Academy Awards, which is never going to happen. So I think we're sitting pretty."

I honestly cannot believe that someone who staged a wake for the Ambassador Hotel—which was torn down in 2006 after a fight to save it—has not chained herself to LACMA's Pereira buildings.

Among the celebrities, there are a lot of words of support from artists, architects, LACMA employees, and other LACMA institutions. There's really no opposition. But almost everyone is either affiliated with LACMA... or a celebrity.

OH WAIT TOM LABONGE IS HERE

I... wish there had been something to quote there, but Tom La Bonge mostly just talked about how he spent last week in Berlin riding trains around and talking to elementary school students? Oh, and in reference to the Purple Line: "Things take a long time."

Ok here's the first pointed criticism of the project—someone questions LACMA's ability to devote resources to satellite campuses and asks why more information isn't available. "There's no reason to go charging towards mediocrity because there's only one chance to get this right."

Another speaker is also condemning the project, saying that the decision to choose the architect happened behind closed doors, and without more public meetings, and that American architects were shut out of the process.

Now a slew of artists and critics are citing a lack of transparency, saying the LACMA falsified data about square footage, and has never provided a floorplan. One speaker cites Joseph Giovannini, who has been very outspoken in his opposition lareviewofbooks.org/article/lacma-…

Board votes, unanimous approval. ✅✅✅✅✅

“I like the horizontal design because it does stand for an idea,” says @SheilaKuehl, who has had the most thoughtful and articulate comments of the hearing. Now she's introducing an emergency rent stabilization ordinance.

It was strange hearing people make these rather aggressive arguments to demolish the current LACMA buildings in favor of Zumthor's plan, which wasn't really the issue? Someone said the old buildings are so unwelcoming she can't bring herself to go into them. Really? NEVER???

I also question the repeated insistence from LACMA-affiliated speakers that these satellite campuses will somehow fix the museum's accessibility issues. Hell no we don't want our art trucked around in "roving galleries"—we want the best possible public space for art *on Wilshire*

That's all from me—until we get to see the models and floorplans next week.

Thanks for tuning in.