Burn Rate
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| Sandow Birk, The Los County Museum on Fire (After Ed Ruscha), 2022 |
LACMA reports it has raised a total of $700 million for its Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries. The projected cost is $750 million.
Though that may sound like they're approaching the finish line, the story is more complicated. Fund raising has been slow the past few years, barely outpacing rising costs. By Mar. 2019 the museum had raised $560 million toward a goal that was then put at $650 million.
At last report, in early Nov. 2021, they had raised $679 million, so that's about $21 million in the past year. At that rate it would take over two more years to reach $750 million, a total that some skeptics have thought to be optimistic. The latest inflation figures don't help any.
Completion of the building is projected for late 2024.
(For more on Sandow Birk's update of Ruscha's 1966 painting, see Birk's site.)
Comments
It's an impossible city [Los Angeles]. I've been there three or four times and I can never find my way around. There are no church spires, no squares [nothing that interrupts the street grid]... I could of course read the street signs, but that's a hell of a task. Since I don't drive that doesn't interest me.
--- Marcel Duchamp on Los Angeles
Huh? I said nothing about that city.
I was talking about Louvre World, which actually happens to be in Orlando, France.
I sure wish IM Pei had added some palm trees and water slides around his glass pyramid. Maybe a roller coaster too.
I wonder if Lucasland is going to have a Star Wars ride?
As for GovanZumthorland, maybe they should hang Jeff Koons' train above the overpass. That will give people driving down Wilshire Blvd the thrill of being squished by it.
Too many loons like this drive away the "Arensbergs" from LA.