The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) design by Peter Zumthor

Peter Zumthor’s intervention builds upon this history, not by layering yet another architectural language onto the site, but by proposing an entirely new spatial framework. His design does not attempt to repair the campus through incremental gestures. Instead, it rethinks the museum typology and its relationship with the city, the park, and the idea of permanence.

Design Intent: Typology, Circulation, and Spatial Experience
Zumthor’s proposal for the David Geffen Galleries abandons the traditional multi-winged museum layout in favor of a continuous, single-story structure elevated on concrete pavilions. This hovering gallery spans Wilshire Boulevard, connecting the north and south sides of the campus both visually and functionally. By raising the gallery above the city, Zumthor introduces a threshold between urban noise and contemplative interiority.

The design eliminates hierarchies within the collection. All departments share a unified exhibition level, removing the historical divisions between disciplines. Instead of a singular grand entrance, the building introduces eight thematic cores at the plaza level, each with independent access points, vertical circulation, and ancillary programs. These cores are conceived as open-storage spaces and study centers, visible from the exterior through large glass panels. Visitors are invited to enter through any of the cores and ascend to the exhibition level, which surrounds a central void and offers access to six distinct gallery areas.

Circulation is structured through the Veranda Gallery, a glazed perimeter corridor that wraps the entire elevated plan. This continuous path serves as both a promenade and an orienting device. It offers framed views of the city while allowing visitors to move freely across the museum without a prescribed route. This spatial openness reflects a rejection of didactic exhibition narratives in favor of visitor-driven experiences.

Materiality, Environmental Strategy, and Construction Approach
Materially, the project is marked by a restrained yet powerful palette. The use of low-carbon concrete in the structural pavilions and floor plates speaks to both durability and environmental responsibility. These concrete volumes serve as tectonic anchors, containing not only vertical circulation but also restaurants, educational facilities, and mechanical infrastructure.

The structural system separates the expressive curvilinear form of the gallery level from its supporting base. This formal disjunction reinforces the conceptual separation between everyday functions and the elevated world of art. The roofline, continuous yet varied, responds to programmatic needs and views, creating a dynamic spatial ceiling that is both felt and seen.

The glass perimeter and translucent wall systems contribute to natural illumination while maintaining environmental control. The project integrates radiant heating and cooling, along with strategies for natural ventilation, to achieve LEED Gold standards. The architecture is performative in its environmental response, without overtly aestheticizing its sustainability.

Cultural Positioning: Public Space, Temporality, and Institutional Identity
Zumthor’s design asserts a new model for museum architecture, one that privileges openness, flexibility, and site-specific integration over monumentality. The David Geffen Galleries do not impose a formal order on the city. Instead, they create a suspended field of cultural activity, open to reinterpretation and reoccupation over time.

The outdoor plaza level is programmed with amenities and public artworks, fostering a permeability between the museum and its civic context. Installations by Mariana Castillo Deball, Sarah Rosalena, and Tony Smith, among others, anchor the landscape as an extension of the museum experience. These interventions mark the return of art to the exterior realm, accessible even when the galleries are closed.

The phased opening strategy, beginning in 2025 with public activation and culminating in a full launch in 2026, reflects the museum’s evolving identity. Rather than presenting a finished object, Zumthor offers an architectural framework that accommodates growth, transformation, and temporal layering.

Source: Peter Zumthor
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