Unidentified ‘Friend’ Behind Museum Switch : Art: Newport Harbor trustees refuse to identify the person who acted unilaterally in hiring an architect to possibly replace Renzo Piano.

An unidentified “friend” of the Newport Harbor Art Museum, not the museum itself, engaged an architect to come up with an alternative to Renzo Piano’s design for a new museum building, according to museum trustee James V. Selna.

Selna refused to name the “friend,” to explain his relationship to the museum or to name the second architect, and he said that he doesn’t know how much the alternative plan will cost.

A well-placed source who requested anonymity said that only some of the museum trustees know the identity of the second architect, who has been working on the plans for three months. Selna would say only that “a consultative process” is being used to bring all board members into the design-selection process.

Selma did say that the decision to seek the alternative plan did not stem from a board vote but was made independently by “the friend.” However, he said, consideration of the decision has been endorsed by the board’s executive committee. “It is certainly appropriate to consider comments and suggestions a friend of the museum might have,” Selna said.

There is speculation in museum circles that the friend is Donald L. Bren, a Newport Harbor trustee who is chairman of the Irvine Co., which owns the land where the museum would be built. “Everyone is saying that this is probably Don Bren,” reported a leading Southern California art professional who did not want to be named. Bren, who has veto power over major aspects of the museum design, declined to be interviewed.

Piano, a world-renowned architect whose projects include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, unveiled his plan for the new $20-million Newport Harbor Museum last summer, and since then he and the trustees have been modifying the design. Concerns have focused on a reported lack of sufficient gallery space and on the cost of the facility, planned for a 10-acre site at the corner of East Coast Highway and MacArthur Boulevard.

Last week, however, museum officials revealed that Piano’s design could be redrawn completely, either by Piano or by other architects who were not named. Selna, who has been designated to coordinate design selection, said Wednesday that the choice of an alternate architect has been narrowed down to the one hired by the friend, though others still may be considered.

Piano, based in Italy, has been unavailable for comment. Selna said he believes that Piano knows who the second architect is. However, he said, the identity is not being announced because certain trustees do not want “the pros and cons (of the architects or their plans) debated in the public.” Selna said a decision by the full board could be reached in a month.

“We’re not necessarily committed to these two alternatives,” he stressed. “The board is going through a thorough consideration of the project.

“I think everyone on the board is anxious to see a new museum and we are working together to find the best way to achieve that goal.”

There is precedence for one museum architect being replaced by another. Art historians say that, typically, museum-building projects are the objects of enormous dispute and controversy and power plays among trustees.

In the early 1960s, Edward D. Stone, hired to design the Pasadena Art Museum (later called the Pasadena Museum of Modern Art and now the Norton Simon Museum), was fired at the demand of the museum’s board president who criticized Stone’s design as far too expensive. Architect Thornton Ladd was engaged and designed the existing building with his partner, John Kelsey.

Still, observers feel that the situation at the Newport Harbor Art Museum is highly unusual, as the museum is currently without a director and senior curator. Kevin E. Consey resigned as director last November, and senior curator Paul Schimmel resigned a month later. Consey had championed the Piano design; the second architect was not retained until after his departure.

“I’m very surprised, and it’s extremely unusual in the absence of a senior curator, let alone a museum director, for a board of trustees to make such a significant move” as considering a second architect, said Hugh Davies, director of the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, which is planning its own on-site expansion.

“It’s particularly disturbing, given the international reputation of Mr. Piano and the very distinguished design he has produced,” Davies said.

A museum expert who requested anonymity said it is most troublesome that the decision to consider a second architect’s plan appears to have been “made without the concurrence and knowledge of (all) the trustees. It’s highly unusual and exactly the kind of individual power play that can really upset the equilibrium of an institution.”

The anonymity of the “friend” and the second architect also are “disturbing,” the same expert added.

However, the expert said, “many of us have thought for some time that that building was going to be too expensive, that it would be very difficult to raise the funds.” Fund raising has been stalled for several months and will not be resumed until a new director is found and building plans become final, museum spokeswoman Maxine Gaiber has said. A search firm hired to seek a new director will not say how things are progressing.