L.A. Museum May Set Up Gallery in Tower Project

C. J. Segerstrom & Sons and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are continuing talks on a proposed gallery to be operated by the museum at the developer’s newly approved Costa Mesa office tower project, according to officials for the developer and the museum.

The Costa Mesa City Council approved the project by a 4-1 vote early Tuesday.

One possibility under discussion for the proposed “satellite” gallery is a display of works of art from the Los Angeles museum’s permanent collection, officials said.

In a plan under discussion for the past year, the Los Angeles museum would operate its first such branch facility in a 15,000-square-foot ground-floor area between two office towers to be built near the San Diego Freeway and South Coast Drive in Costa Mesa.

Museum spokeswoman Pam Jenkinson said Tuesday that museum officials have endorsed the Segerstrom-proposed satellite plan “in principle.”

However, no decisions have been reached on actual exhibits or financing of operations, said Jenkinson and Segerstrom spokesman Thomas Santley. “We’re still talking, but there’s nothing finalized,” Santley said.

Similar museum branch galleries have been established in office complexes by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, among others.

The Laguna Art Museum has operated a satellite gallery at the Segerstrom firm’s South Coast Plaza shopping mall since October, 1984.