Stairway to Geffen
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| Geffen staircase from ground level, near head-on (photo in Christopher Knight's Facebook post) |
Are the stairways to the David Geffen Galleries too unwelcoming, too overwhelming? In a Facebook post Christopher Knight reports that there are 60 steps ("It was like the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan.") This draws numerous comments, nearly all negative. ("Nothing says 'welcome to our museum' like a Medieval wall of steep stairs.")
Some commenters are confused by the photo Knight chose to illustrate his post. It appears to be a telephoto view from ground level that really flattens the perspective. Side views show the steps have a shallow pitch and large landings. In short, the Geffen steps are not steep but there are a lot of them. Sixty steps is the equivalent of four flights of stairs. Thomas Frick points out one irony: "I remember Govan saying—pre-Swiss architect—that every flight of stairs lost X% of audience."
("Stairway to Geffen" is thanks to The Dark Bob.)
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| Side view of staircase |
Comments
The obsession and distortions are becoming psychotic.
You would think in retirement he would find better things to do.
But, alas, he's still pandering to the poorly-educated.
--- J. Garcin.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/68678468@N06/26920521271
I assume there's alternate access. Where's the funicular?
> Derangement Syndrome
> (LDS)
LOL. You don't happen to be the same guy who has muttered for quite awhile about "MAGA" and the "Save-LACMA-mob"?
As for Knight, I didn't realize just how on-target he truly has been. If not about the Zumthor/Govan building, then certainly about LACMA's special-exhibition schedule.
Seeing a rundown of various temporary shows at the Met on 5th Ave during the past few years really hit me like a sledgehammer. It made me feel like a bumpkin finally visiting the big city. And, okay, the Met has a huge budget, LACMA does not. Which is why wasting its limited resources on things like an entire room in the Resnick devoted to hanging objects reminiscent of the chandeliers in the Met (Opera House, that is) is even more inexcusable. Govan and his people could have saved even more money since 2020 by exhibiting in that same space the museum's own permanent collect.
Moreover, it's not like there aren't already plenty of spaces in LA to see the style and time-period of artworks displayed at the LA Art Show, which incidentally will be held in the next few days at the LA Convention Center.
As for the Geffen Galleries, I really hope they're a big success---in terms of popularity, technical-operational angles and aesthetics. But something makes me suspect the big-league museums of the world will pat the Geffen on its head and treat it like an odd variation of LACMA-1965. But hopefully this time around there at least will be a sense of square footage compared with Pereira's modest-sized, chopped-up-spaces over 50 years ago.
I believe this was posted by the former curator of LACMA's Department of European Art:
> J Patrice Marandel
> I remember hearing about
> the dreadful hierarchical
> stairs…
^ The special-exhibition format of Govan irritates me even more when I think of his marginalization of things like what Marandel for years was working on and trying to improve.
These other comments stood out to me:
> Peter Reginato
> I went there...to see what it looked like
> and I liked it but....so much glass where
> will they hang paintings without
> restoring to those half ass temporary
> walls?
> Steve DeGroodt
> Waiting for the harsh afternoon
> sun to shine through the
> expansive windows to fade
> the paintings and works
> on paper.
What he refers to will be displayed in inner galleries, so it shouldn't be a problem. But he hints at another issue: The Geffen will have way less WALL space than in the old 1965-1986 buildings.
However, visitors into TikTok-Instagram moments should get a lift out of the new building.
If the elevator banks are well designed, there shouldn’t be any real issues. Stairwells are common in museums—SFMOMA has them across many more floors—but it also has a bank of elevators that function smoothly. By contrast, when I recently visited BCAM, the smaller elevator was out of service, leaving only the large service elevator, which took an extremely long time. My 10-year-old even started asking to take the stairs from the ground level to the third floor.
The truth is that stairwells are pleasant for going down, but they won’t be the primary way people enter or access galleries. Without a solid bank of elevators, this Knight Stairgate becomes a much-to-do about nothing. The most important question remains, as previously noted: how much wall space does the new building actually provide?
It seems like if you can't climb a simple flight of stairs such as these, you're not long for this world or are probably not fit enough to go out. Christopher Knight in his dotard, I guess, is one of those people. Or he's trying to protect his Pulitzer, which he for some reason thinks needs defending.
First you guys complained about how the galleries are all on a single level and then you complain about climbing stairs which, inadvertently, proved Govan's point that people don't want to do it. Govan was wrong (most people at the building previews climbed the stairs, dumbass, with no issues) and so are you guys.
The Sainsbury Wing at the London National Gallery is (and was!) renowned for Venturi's entryway sequence, the central feature of which was gasp! climbing a flight of stairs to go into the galleries. So this seems like maybe a fat, lazy American issue?
> the galleries are all on
> a single level
I don't recall anyone ever complaining about that per se, as much as Govan's OCD about a one-level-only building automatically reduced the amount of square footage. Expansion may now also be harder in the future too---adding another level to the roof of the Geffen (otherwise a heat sink, a concrete desert) doesn't seem workable.
Most museums, particularly the great ones, don't have only one floor of gallery space. So LACMA in 2026 may be the opposite extreme of LACMA 1965. William Pereira designed way too many floors in the former Ahmanson Gallery and didn't connect correctly the various spaces in the 3 buildings he did create.