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Form Follows (Seismic) Function

Seismic retrofits are usually invisible. Michael Maltzan's design for the Hammer Museum's new store takes a different approach, using retrofits as a visible reminder of the Big One that awaits. Diagonal cylinders erupt from display tables to connect to the building's support columns. Developed for NASA in the 1960s, the cylinders are filled with a syrupy silicone fluid that dampens the support columns' vibrations. The damping devices have lately come into widespread architectural use, where they not only mitigate earthquakes but the bending of skyscrapers in high winds and the swaying of suspension bridges. 



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Anonymous said…
What occurred in Turkey is a reminder of how latte-brie-first-world controversies like LACMA and its square footage will go "poof" in an instance if the ground shakes hard enough. But displaying artworks in front of those structural dampeners admittedly might be easier than dealing with way too many walls of ground-to-ceiling windows.
March 3, 2023 at 1:04 PM
Anonymous said…
What happened in Turkey is more of a reminder of why the Peirera building had to go. Zumthor's LACMA is being fitted with state-of-the-art seismic base isolators for earthquakes, which were non-existent in the crumbling Peirera buildings. Latte-brie-first-world technologies and city/state regulations are the reason LACMA will stay up during an earthquake.
March 4, 2023 at 10:53 AM
Anonymous said…
What happened in Turkey is more of a reminder of why the Peirera building had to go. The new LACMA is being fitted with state-of-the-art seismic base isolators for earthquakes, which were non-existent in the crumbling Peirera buildings. Latte-brie-first-world technologies and city/state regulations are the reason LACMA will stay up during an earthquake.
March 4, 2023 at 10:54 AM
Anonymous said…
^ The greater quake resistance of Zumthor's building doesn't answer why so much of the structure's mass had to skip and hop over Wilshire Blvd instead of staying north of it, why it's smaller than the buildings it has replaced, why its floor-to-ceiling windows and concrete walls will be ideal for displaying artworks and, most of all, why its budget stresses out LACMA's historically modest bottom line.

Vanity projects generally aren't ideal.
March 6, 2023 at 3:32 PM
Anonymous said…
^^^It hops over Wilshire Blvd? So what? Many cities have buildings or monuments that skip over major boulevards. It's actually a good thing.

... It's smaller than the building it replaces? So what? Bigger is not better.

... Floor-to-ceiling windows? So what? The windows will have a UV layer (laminated). Moreover, the cantilever changes the incidence angle, effectively turning the windows into "clerestory" windows where light control is most crucial.

... Concrete walls? So what? The Yale Art Gallery (Kahn building) hangs paintings on the masonry walls of the Kahn building. It's not a big deal.

Get out and see the world. You sound like a rube.
March 6, 2023 at 6:38 PM
Anonymous said…
^ If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were being as purposefully naive, situationally dense and tactically conniving as Michael Govan, Peter Zumthor and LACMA's board of trustees are. Are you, in fact, those particular people or are you mind melding with them?
March 7, 2023 at 8:02 AM
Anonymous said…
^^^That's the problem. You don't know better.

On that note, the 2023 Pritzker Prize goes to another architect whose work has the same sensibility as Zumthor's.

Zumthor was awarded the Pritzker in 2009.
March 8, 2023 at 7:11 PM
Anonymous said…
I do not understand why everyone is so confused as to why LACMA moved south across Wilshire instead of north into the park. Way back when the original Zumthor design was shown as a model, part of the planned galleries on the east side of the building were overhanging the tar pits. The Museum of Natural History rejected the idea of a building encroaching the tar pits. They essentially "own" the site of the park, and there was also a concern about LACMA taking up any more park land. (In the current design, it may be that LACMA actually gives back a bit of park). As LACMA did not want to build "up," they needed a footprint that could do that: thus, the crossing of Wilshire.
March 10, 2023 at 10:12 PM
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