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Phase I
Completed in February 2008, Phase I of LACMA’s ongoing Transformation began the unification and expansion of the museum’s campus. The project added 60,000 square feet of new gallery space via BCAM; a new central gathering space, the BP Grand Entrance; the Dona S. and Dwight M. Kendall Concourse, which enables visitors to easily traverse the galleries and piazzas across LACMA’s campus; and the Jeanne and Anthony Pritzker Family Foundation Parking Garage, which occupies two levels underground with dedicated spaces for more than 500 self-parked cars or 700 valet-parked cars. Existing areas were reenvisioned, such as the Ahmanson Grand Staircase, installed in The David Bohnett Foundation Atrium, which leads from the concourse to the plaza level and, because of its central location, links the eastern portion of the campus to BCAM and LACMA West while also redirecting the flow of foot traffic through the building. Tony Smith’s Smoke, a massive aluminum sculpture, is installed at the foot of the staircase.
The addition of the BCAM galleries advanced LACMA’s strategy to integrate contemporary art into its exhibitions and public programs and to explore the interplay of the art of our time with that of the past. Further, the BCAM gallery space has enabled LACMA to shift and reorganize several major areas of its collections, including the 350-piece installation of modern works, encompassing objects from the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies and the newly acquired Lazarof Collection. The installation occupies 22,000 square feet of space in the dramatically refurbished Ahmanson Building. In July 2008, the entire Latin American collection was reinstalled, including the art of the ancient Americas collection, which resides in innovative casework designed and built by Los Angeles artist Jorge Pardo. In addition, LACMA’s robust American collection, which includes notable recent acquisitions of works by Thomas Eakins and George Bellows, was reinstalled in 2007, integrating decorative arts, design, and photography with painting and sculpture.
BCAM with Chris Burden's Urban Light in the foreground, photo © 2008 Museum Associates/LACMA.
Image, top: Site drawing, west elevation, Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, architects.
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