New Renderings of Zumthor's LACMA

The latest crop of images for the project that was unveiled in 2013 coincide with a major $150 million donation by David Geffen. It is, per a statement from LACMA, "the largest single cash gift from an individual in the museum’s history," an amount that makes the media mogul "the largest individual donor to the Building LACMA campaign." Not surprisingly, the building designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor will be named the David Geffen Galleries when it is completed, the museum hopes, in 2023.

​The renderings – similar in appearance to images from April and much better than the ones from August 2016 – do not reveal any major changes to Zumthor's design. The 387,500-square-foot building, which would demolish four of the museum's seven buildings, is made up of seven pavilions that support a large, amoeba-like gallery level that spans Wilshire Boulevard. The roof of the raised gallery level cantilevers to shade the all-glass walls, while the seven pavilions extend above the roof to create taller spaces bathed in light from unexpected places.

The renderings also correspond with the release of a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR), whose public review process extends until 15 December 2017. Per LACMA, "Before the proposed project is approved, the Final Environmental Impact Report will be prepared addressing all public comments received on the DEIR."