The LA Times‘s Mike Boehm zeroes in on Eli Broad’s plans for a new museum in LA. Broad has increased the size of the building and has three LA-area municipalities competing for the civic prize. But no matter who wins, LA will have more contemporary art exhibition space than any other city:
[C]onceptual drawings delivered to Beverly Hills officials last month show a much bigger project: a 126,600-square-foot, three-story building with the footprint of an arrow pointing east. Of that, a museum of about 43,000 square feet and an adjoining 6,100-square-foot outdoor sculpture court would occupy the top floor. An additional 67,000 square feet would provide an “archive” for the art not on display and offices for all three Broad foundations — for art, education and medical research.
An additional 10,000 square feet of commercial space was requested by the city, Broad said, to spur street life along one of the adjoining streets, Little Santa Monica Boulevard; about a third of that retail area would be for the museum’s restaurant and store. […]
Broad says that establishing another major venue devoted to contemporary art would solidify L.A.’s standing as a leading center for works created since World War II.
- MOCA […] has about 75,000 square feet of exhibition space in its two downtown venues.
- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which shows art from all regions and times, includes the free-standing, 50,000-square-foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened in early 2008. Broad paid its entire $56-million cost. […]
- L.A.’s third leading contemporary art institution, Westwood’s Hammer Museum, has 14,000 square feet of gallery space.Broad said that factoring in his museum, at about 40,000 square feet, Los Angeles “would have more contemporary art space for the public than any place in America.”
