A Look at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Photography by Justin Juarez

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the centerpiece of a series of museums in the Wilshire area called Museum Row. LACMA is the largest west coast art museum in the United States and has cemented Los Angeles as an artistic capital of the world. Opened in 1965, the original design of LACMA was by William Pereira, known for his outlandish and unusual forms in his designs. LACMA itself is in the middle of a dynamic overhaul, most notably with the addition of The Broad and the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavillion, both designed by the innovative Renzo Piano Building Workshop as part of a decade long transformation project. Four of the original buildings on their sprawling campus, the Ahmanson, Art of Americas, Hammer, and Leo S. Bing Center will be constructed into one seamless organic building by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor with the intent of being “Transparent, Accessible, and Integrated.” While now established landmark works such as Chris Burden’s Urban Light and Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass will be on display for years to come, the work of William Pereira will only be here until the end of 2018 from where Zumthor’s vision of LACMA will be unveiled in 2023.