County Art Museum Defers New Building

Trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, citing the gloomy economy, voted this week to put on hold plans for a new building, a massive structure on stilts designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. It was intended to replace virtually every building on the museum campus.

“It is not dead. It is on hold. That’s a long way from dead,” said Walter Weisman, chairman of the board. “I think there’s been a growing recognition, not just on our board, that philanthropic institutions have to take into consideration the changes in the economic circumstances.

“We are not going to put the museum in financial jeopardy,” he added.

Trustees said Friday that the board voted this week to study alternatives to the Koolhaas design, which was estimated would cost $200 million to $300 million.

Trustee Camilla Chandler Frost noted that Koolhaas has been paid to date.

The expensive nuts-and-bolts design work has not yet been done for the project, with its billowing tent-like roof, open-air plazas, and horizontal layers of exhibition space and offices. The next step would be creating schematic drawings.

Several trustees stressed that the Koolhaas plan, hailed as a potential monument and piece of the city’s cultural legacy, is still something they favor if money can be found.

“It would be wonderful, because we believe in the Koolhaas design,” Weisman said. “But whether we go in that direction or we go some other direction, that’s what we’re studying. All the options are on the table, including Koolhaas.”

Museum officials have been warning for weeks that fund-raising for the project has been stalled by the dark economic picture.

Another blow came when voters failed to approve a $250-million bond measure for improvements at county museums. That could have given LACMA $98 million.

Though the Annenberg Foundation recently gave the museum $10 million as a special endowment, that money will be used for buying art and supporting educational programs and exhibitions, not for building.

At the meeting, Museum Director Andrea L. Rich cited the economy and the difficulty of fund-raising as reasons the institution could not move forward responsibly with its plans, said spokesman Jim Rawitsch. Rich could not be reached for comment.

George N. Boone, a senior trustee who attended the meeting, said the project “may go forward in the future. But right now, they’re assessing how they’re going to get the money.”