LACMA opens its new building for a sneak peek: Photos from the first preview

The concrete walls of the David Geffen Galleries were still bare Thursday evening. The landscaping outside was still settling in, and pockets of construction were still visible. But the minute the music poured out of the upstairs entryway, it finally hit: The new LACMA was actually here.

After five years of construction, so much debate about its scale, design and ambitions, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art held its first event Thursday night inside the Peter Zumthor-designed building. A sprawling, immersive concert by composer and SoCal jazz hero Kamasi Washington called for multiple bands, each with about a dozen musicians, to play site-specific arrangements throughout the empty galleries before art has been installed. A woodwind ensemble overlooked Park La Brea through floor-to-ceiling glass; a choir stacked harmonies that floated over the span of the structure as it crossed Wilshire Boulevard.

Hundreds of VIPs and members of the media took it all in. The project has its skeptics, including how the museum’s permanent collection will function in it. But for now, museum members could slink about the echoing halls of L.A.’s newest landmark and ponder the possibilities.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Guests at the sneak peek inside the new building Thursday cross a glass-lined expanse that crosses over Wilshire Boulevard.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

LACMA Director Michael Govan addresses members of the media assembled for the first public peek inside the empty building, which still needs to complete some construction details and install the art before opening, targeted for April 2026.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The design of the museum has morphed over the years, from a dark, curvaceous amoeba-like form that echoed the nearby La Brea Tar Pits to a design that retains the curves up top but shifts to rectilinear glass on the galleries level below.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The preview event Thursday featured musicians staged throughout the building.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Preview events give museum members a chance to view Zumthor’s design before art is installed. One of the lingering questions is how the concrete walls will fare given the museum’s new plan to shift from permanent collection displays to ever-rotating exhibitions — and all the rehanging of artworks that will be required.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The setting sun casts long shadows from visitors looking out toward the rooftop of Renzo Piano’s Resnick Pavilion and, off in the distance on the left, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’ domed terrace.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Tony Smith’s installation “Smoke” has a new home outside the David Geffen Galleries. The museum recently announced the addition of a forthcoming Jeff Koons’ sculpture, “Split-Rocker.”

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Smoke” rises near a long entry staircase to the new building. When the new building opens in April 2026, LACMA has said, the ticketing process will be handled at kiosks on the ground level.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Inside another one of the galleries. Some of the architecture-circle speculation about the building has centered on the finish of the building’s concrete, inside and out.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The view from the David Geffen Galleries as it crosses Wilshire Boulevard.

Times art critic Christopher Knight, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his early analysis of the LACMA building plan, and Times music critic Mark Swed attended the preview concert event Thursday. Check back for their first impressions of the new space.