Proposed Peter Zumthor Design of New L.A. County Museum of Art

Has that museum building been hanging around too long? You know the one I mean: The one with the central court that goes up four floors. Rather nice for a building designed in the 1960s. Well, it’s gotta go! It will be razed in favor of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor’s space station illustrated above in a photo from the Los Angeles Times.

In Europe, people are not quite so quick to go to the wrecking ball. And it’s not just because of earthquakes: We see new architecture as an attribute of personal power. Basically, the executives of LACMA are just flexing their muscles. They’ll have to close down most of the museum’s collections for several years while the new monstrosity is being constructed.

By the time the new wing opens, I will probably have just written LACMA off as a place I’m interested in seeing. The works I like the most (click here) will probably be crated up and stored in some sub-basement until the Zumthorian space station emerges out of the dark matter by the La Brea Tar Pits. Of course, all the 20th century stuff I hate will continue to be on view in an adjacent building.

This Is the Rather Handsome Museum Building Doomed to Be Torn Down

I really feel for those people in Istanbul who are rioting because the Turkish government wants to turn an old Ottoman-era barracks, sitting on one of the few parks in the city, into a shopping mall. Even Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, has gotten into the act—presumably because he has been paid off by the developers.

Why don’t the people of Los Angeles rise up against the morons who run LACMA and toss them into the adjoining Tar Pits. It would be no more than they deserve!