Photographer Iwan Baan has captured images of the curving Los Angeles County Museum of Art expansion by architect Peter Zumthor, which is complete after more than 20 years and ready to be filled with art ahead of its 2026 opening.
Called the David Geffen Galleries, the building stretches out in an undulating form along the eastern side of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). It expands over Wilshire Boulevard, supporting an exhibition floor “elevated almost 30 feet above street level”, according to the museum.
The building is set to house LACMA’s permanent collection when it officially opens in April 2026, although major construction was completed at the end of 2024, and some lower-level spaces are now open to the public.
Designed by Swiss architect Zumthor, the glass-and-concrete building is composed of one long snaking form set atop seven structural pavilions that are distributed unevenly along its footprint.
Varied in size, the concrete pavilions on the ground level “plaza” contain public spaces such as restaurants, retail, and outdoor seating areas and utility spaces such as a loading dock. The largest of the pavilions will contain a new theatre.
Two main outdoor concrete staircases lead up from the ground-level plaza to the exhibition floor. The gallery spaces here will be contained in a variety of rectangular volumes distributed around an open floor plan.
“The horizontal single-level design eliminates traditional cultural hierarchies, placing all works of art on the same plane,” said LACMA. “No gallery space is designated permanently for any department of the collection. No single path through the rooms is prescribed by the architecture.”
A single band of glazing wraps around the entire perimeter of the upper level, while expansive floor-to-ceiling windows stretch out along the public pavilions.
According to the museum, the building was designed to achieve LEED Gold certification with the use of “low-carbon concrete” and strategies including natural ventilation and radiant heating and cooling.
The project began in earnest in 2001, when LACMA held a competition to redesign the museum’s campus. Zumthor began initial studies of the east side of the campus in 2009, eventually releasing the first design for the David Geffen Galleries in 2013.
Following the release, the building went through a major redesign in 2014 to prevent damaging the nearby La Brea Tar Pits, with additional renderings released in 2017.
However, it has faced numerous setbacks and controversies throughout the years, as the project called for the demolition of several pre-existing buildings on the LACMA campus, which came down in 2020.
The project received public support from actor Brad Pitt and other actors in 2019 during an environmental approval meeting.
When it opens fully in 2026, the building will expand LACMA’s total gallery space from 130,000 to 220,000 square feet (12,077 to 20,438 square metres).
Zumthor, who is known for such as the Therme Vals spas in Switzerland, won the Pritzker Prize in 2009.
The photography is by Iwan Baan.
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