MOCA Announces Plan for Westside Branch

In a move that will provide a prestigious Westside showcase for the downtown-based Museum of Contemporary Art and give the Pacific Design Center an attractive new tenant, the museum has agreed to take over the center’s Feldman Gallery. The five-year agreement, announced Wednesday at the opening of the center’s WestWeek design festival, will allow the museum to expand its architecture and design exhibition program in a setting that welcomes adventurous ideas, MOCA director Jeremy Strick said.

Anticipating a lineup of exhibitions that features works by “the most advanced artists in the fields of architecture and design,” Strick said the program will begin in the fall. The museum will need more time to organize its first major show at the Feldman Gallery, so the inaugural event is likely to be “a soft opening” featuring objects in the museum’s permanent collection, he said.

“This isn’t MOCA West; it’s a wonderful addition to our program,” Strick said, emphasizing that Feldman Gallery exhibitions will enhance--not dilute or detract from--the museum’s programs in its two buildings downtown. The 3,000-square-foot, two-floor gallery will provide a continuous venue for architecture and design, along with other exhibitions, he said. In addition, the museum will present public programs in the center’s 385-seat theater.

The gallery--which has hosted a variety of independently organized exhibitions and events--is already well equipped with lighting, a loading dock and preparation and storage areas, according to Strick. Although the museum will program the facility, operating expenses will be underwritten by the Pacific Design Center, he said.

The museum will hire a new curator to replace architecture specialist Elizabeth A.T. Smith, who left MOCA last year and became chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, but that person will not be assigned solely to the Feldman Gallery.MOCA’s entire curatorial staff will participate in planning programs for the facility, Strick said.

The arrangement with the Pacific Design Center ends a long search for a way for MOCA to engage the Westside audience closer to their residential neighborhoods. The gallery is part of the PDC’s 150-showroom blue and green complex designed by architect Cesar Pelli, which dominates West Hollywood’s design community from its 16-acre site at Melrose Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard.

Strick credited Charles S. Cohen, president of the Pacific Design Center, with facilitating MOCA’s new partnership. Cohen--who purchased the PDC in October with Stanley V. Cheslock of Cheslock-Bakker Associates, a private equity firm in Stamford, Conn.--is also president and CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corp., which owns the D&D; (Decorating & Design) Building in Manhattan.