As architect Peter Zumthor tells the New York Times the new LACMA building is not his work, we say STOP and audit this boondoggle!

Gentle reader,

This special edition of our newsletter is a cross-posted update to a 2019 online petition seeking to preserve and restore the 1965 LACMA campus by architect William Pereria, whose work we’ve been championing for years.

In it, we thank them for joining more than 4245 concerned citizens who have signed the historic petition urging the Los Angeles County Supervisors to reconsider their approval of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for LACMA's redevelopment plan.

Read on to find out more and how you can speak up and do something to protect our precious county museum. Or just click here.

LACMA Lovers—we tried! And it turns out we all were right, all along. The museum’s historic buildings have been demolished and workers are on site erecting the bridge over Wilshire. But in the New York Times this week, former Los Angeles Times architecture critic turned City Hall insider Christopher Hawthorne got a big scoop that makes that whole scheme look rotten. (alternate link)

We’re not fans of Christopher Hawthorne. When we were working to landmark the Los Angeles Times buildings, seeking to protect them from Canadian developer Onni Group’s demolition plans, he agreed to join us in a meeting with planning staff of councilman Jose Huizar, claiming that he shared our conviction that William Pereira’s addition to the original art deco structure had architectural and historic merit and deserved to be integrated into any new project. 

But during the meeting, he shocked us by announcing that having worked in it for years, he didn’t care about the Pereira building and it would be fine if it got torn down. Coming from the “design czar” in Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, this was a brutal blow that signified high level support for destroying our landmark—and we’d brought him to the table to deliver it.

Well, things have changed since then. Jose Huizar was soon raided by the FBI, and after squandering countless public defender hours, confessed to racketeering. 

Hawthorne retired from civic life and moved to Connecticut, where his wife teaches at Yale. They gave him some coursework, too.

And it was at a Yale shindig that Hawthorne cozied up to Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, and heard some smack about that horrible Los Angeles museum project—such a nightmare that Zumthor had determined never to work in American again. Maybe feeling a twinge of guilt about his betrayal in Jose Huizar’s office, but probably not, Hawthorne listened closely. 

LACMA has worked hard, and with success, to keep the press far away from Peter Zumthor. So getting his unvarnished opinion on this project is a big deal. The New York Times thought so, too, and flew Hawthorne to Switzerland to follow up.

In the story published on October 4, 2023, Peter Zumthor flatly states that the project has been value engineered to death ("There are no Zumthor details any more”) with much of the budget going to address fossil discoveries and sinking pylons in the tarry soil, a material fact that Museum Director Michael Govan concealed from the public ("Govan asked him to streamline the design, he added, 'to compensate for all these millions of dollars for all these new [foundation] poles, without going to L.A. County... If we were to go to the county to ask for such an amount, he knew they would say, ‘Let’s cancel it.’ So this we had to avoid.”). 

We know from other projects we’ve tracked that Los Angeles County contractors struggle to keep from going more than 20% over budget, because doing so triggers a requirement that they return to the County Supervisors for an additional funding vote. With the public already strongly opposed to the new LACMA building, as revealed in the 2019 pre-vote emails we obtained through a public records request, and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who cast the deciding LACMA demolition vote, having been convicted on Federal corruption charges, and with two new Supervisors now on the board, Govan was right to worry. A request for additional building funds before the bridge crept across Wilshire would very likely have been shot down.  

This is a scandal! It has always been a scandal. Through deception, manipulation and what we suspect were bribes for votes, a museum that belongs to the people of Los Angeles has been destroyed, hundreds of millions in public funds have been squandered, LACMA’s permanent collection remains in indefinite storage, the South Los Angeles community was lied to and deprived of a promised satellite museum arts hub and citizens will be paying for these lousy ideas and sleazy acts for generations to come.

There is, however, some small pleasure in saying “we told you so” and in knowing that after Wednesday’s brutal story was published, LACMA Museum Director Michael Govan must feel like hot garbage.

We love LACMA and we want to see this great museum managed in a more transparent, democratic and responsible manner, to benefit the citizens of Los Angeles who own it, and not the whims of the billionaires who sit on the Museum Associates board, nor whatever incompetent ego stroking megalomaniacs they choose to hire. That’s why we support the Save LACMA ballot measure.

As the misguided LACMA project racked up horrible press clips, hemorrhaging memberships and multi-generational goodwill, the billionaires on the board punished Michael Govan like they would a naughty child: they sold his museum provided residence, displacing him to a Jim Rockford-esque trailer in Malibu which he pretended was his choice. 

A properly managed institution would have halted the failing project and started over, but LACMA is not a properly managed institution.  

LACMA has worked hard, and with success, to keep the press far away from Peter Zumthor, and they’ve kept Angelenos away, too. We believe that had the architect had the opportunity to meet with citizens, to hear from us what the museum means and how we use it, that he might have designed a very different building—one worth building. 

Instead, some of the last working years of an important architect have been squandered, along with all that money and goodwill, because Michael Govan kept Peter Zumthor in a little box and lied to him about everything—just like he lied to the citizens, and the Supervisors, and the board, and probably to himself. 

This is not working. No one museum administrator should ever have this kind of power over a public institution and hundreds of millions of dollars—no matter how cute Lynda Resnick thinks he is and no matter how many stars like Brad Pitt and Diane Keaton can be limo’d downtown to give public comment.

At that rushed hearing on April 9, 2019, Brad Pitt said, “I understand the decision you make is going to take a leap of faith. I ask you to take the leap of faith in Michael Govan’s vision for the collection, in Peter Zumthor’s vision for the future, and how we move through this museum. I think it’s going to be a gem for everyone. I’m gone. Thank you.” 

Charmed and convinced, the supervisors voted unanimously to demolish the historic LACMA campus.

But instead of a lyrical Peter Zumthor masterpiece, we’re getting a squat Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) overpass. It’s time to change course. We hope the Los Angeles County Supervisors are paying attention. We sure are.  

We don’t blame Peter Zumthor for lashing out in the pages of the New York Times. He’s gotten a raw deal. We just wish he’d done so sooner, or quit the project entirely. At this point, it might be too late to stop building the “Zumthor” that he has repudiated as not being his work. But maybe it isn’t too late. And the County Supervisors should have the courage to stop the construction and audit the project to find out.

If you agree, please sign our new petition, linked here, and pass it on!

In addition to signing the petition, you can also give your Supervisor a call or send an email, saying something like: “I am deeply disturbed by architect Peter Zumthor’s interview with the New York Times in which he repudiates his design of the new LACMA building because funds meant for the galleries got diverted to pay for unexpected engineering costs, a fact that was deliberately kept from the public and the Supervisors. Please act now to halt construction and audit the LACMA project, which is using $117.5 Million in taxpayer funds and $300 Million in county bonds, and being constructed atop a valuable Wilshire Boulevard parcel that could be developed with a tower. If the “Zumthor” building that the architect has repudiated is not right for Los Angeles, it’s not too late to change course, stop work and save our County Museum.“ 

Supervisor Contacts (find yours on the website https://bos.lacounty.gov): 
* Hilda Solis firstdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov  (213) 974-4111
* Holly J. Mitchell HollyJMitchell@bos.lacounty.gov (213) 974-2222
* Lindsay Horvath ThirdDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov (213) 974-3333
* Janice Hahn FourthDistrict@bos.lacounty.gov (213) 974-4444
* Kathryn Barger Kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov (213) 974-5555

Although William Pereira’s historic LACMA campus no longer exists, the museum remains a public institution which has the potential to serve our community in ways far greater than it has under this leadership. We will keep watching, and keep fighting, for a better future.

Please keep sharing the new petition link (https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-new-lacma-building-that-architect-peter-zumthor-says-is-no-longer-his-work) with your friends who love LACMA and want it to remain at the heart of our city's culture and community. And stay tuned for updates as we have them.

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

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Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.

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UPCOMING BUS & WALKING TOURS

• Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue Walking Tour (Sat. 10/7) • Eastside Babylon Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 10/14) • The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California Nightmare Bus Tour (Sat. 10/21) • The Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour (Sat. 10/28) • Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 Walking Tour (Sun. 10/29) • The Run: Gay Downtown History Walking Tour (Sat. 11/4) • Downtown L.A. is for Book Lovers Walking Tour (Sat. 11/11) • Special Event: Leo Politi Loves Los Angeles Bus Tour (11/18) • Alvarado Terrace & South Bonnie Brae Walking Tour (Sat. 11/25) • Know Your Downtown L.A.: Tunnels To Towers To The Dutch Chocolate Shop Walking Tour (Sat. 12/2) • Highland Park Arroyo Walking Tour (Sat. 12/9) • Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness Walking Tour (Sun. 12/17) • Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Walking Tour (Tues. 12/26)