The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego\u2019s (MCASD) director and CEO defended the institution against a claim by international architects and historians who\u2019ve branded work which will destroy the museum\u2019s post-modern entryway as “a tremendous mistake.”
\nOne of two MCASD campuses, the oceanfront La Jolla branch has been closed since January 2017.\u00a0 An addition\/retrofit, scheduled to begin in October, will quadruple its current gallery space from 10,000 to about 40,000 square feet.\u00a0
\nDuring reconstruction, the museum\u2019s current entryway, designed by high-profile post-modern architects\u00a0Robert\u00a0Venturi and\u00a0Denise\u00a0Scott\u00a0Brown, will shift the entrance to the building\u2019s south side, removing the signature columns and pergolas that have been there since 1996.
\n“We recognize\u00a0the museum\u2019s need\u00a0to expand,\u00a0but we ask\u00a0that it\u00a0do so\u00a0without irreparably damaging a cultural landmark,” said a petition to MCASD signed by Harvard University architecture student\u00a0Yaxuan Liu and about 90 others.\u00a0“Brown and Venturi\u00a0are widely\u00a0recognized as among the 20th\u00a0 century\u2019s\u00a0most important architects \u2026 this building remains a shining\u00a0reminder of their\u00a0enduring cultural contribution. This\u00a0 well-loved\u00a0 urban\u00a0 space\u00a0 is\u00a0 now\u00a0 threatened\u00a0 by\u00a0 the\u00a0 museum\u2019s\u00a0 expansion\u00a0 plan, which would\u00a0 tear\u00a0 down\u00a0 much\u00a0 of\u00a0 the museum\u2019s facade\u00a0 as\u00a0 well\u00a0 as\u00a0 their\u00a0 dramatic\u00a0 colonnade interrupting\u00a0 the\u00a0 urbane\u00a0 rhythm\u00a0 of\u00a0 the\u00a0 street\u00a0 and\u00a0 destroying\u00a0 the\u00a0 courtyard.” \u00a0
\nMCASD La Jolla\u2019s expansion-renovation was designed by\u00a0 Annabelle Selldorf of New York-based Selldorf Architects, who is leading the museum reconstruction project.
\nKathryn Kanjo, the museum\u2019s director\/CEO, was puzzled by the petition drive\u2019s timing.
\n“The building redesign has been in the process since as early as 2014,” said Kanjo, noting, “changes are planned to the facade removing the colonnade, the pergola and the oversized columns and re-orienting the campus entry path. We\u2019re rethinking the entrance, not just for aesthetic experiential things, but because the center of activity for the building has shifted to the south, where we\u2019re moving the entrance.”
\nKanjo added the public “was often confused on where to enter the old building.” She said what MCASD has asked for was “for somebody to give us more flexible gallery spaces for our collection and to unify and bring some kind of clarity to our historical buildings.”
\nThe museum\u2019s administrator said the objective of the museum redesign was to “make a clear and welcoming building entryway that would draw people in and let them know it\u2019s a museum.”
\nKanjo added Seldorf\u2019s plan is to reconfigure MCASD La Jolla\u2019s entryway “to make it glassy and welcoming, not a forest of columns.”
\nSherwood Auditorium and its 500-seat capacity is gone in MCASD\u2019s retrofit, replaced by exhibit space. But Kanjo said reconstruction plans include a 250-seat classroom\/lecture\/theater space.
\nAnswering the charge of critics that MCASD is ignoring its own architectural history in its redesign, Kanjo replied: “Their petition wanted us to consider the history of the building. We did. We\u2019ve been very systematic in considering not just our architectural history, but how our audience and the community use this building.”
\nOpened in 1941, MCASD La Jolla has previously undergone several architectural expansions: La Jolla architects Mosher & Drew completed a series of expansions in 1950, 1960 and the late 1970s; and Venturi Scott Brown & Associates\u2019 did an entryway renovation in 1996.
\nThe dissenting petition by architects\/historians disapproves of MCASD\u2019s current La Jolla campus refit.
\n“It would move the museum \u2019s entry\u00a0to a formulaic glass lobby that\u00a0thumbs its nose at Gill \u2019s architecture… Demolishing the colonnade would prevent visitors from\u00a0experiencing it in\u00a0the way Gill intended\u2026 The\u00a0new plan is a slap in\u00a0the face to\u00a0 Gill \u2026 it would reduce\u00a0the ties between\u00a0 Prospect\u00a0Street and the museum\u2026 We ask that the museum does better, that it come up with a plan for expansion that is sensitive and respectful to the Village of La Jolla,” the petition read.
\nWe ask that it avoid demolishing the colonnade and build its new galleries without harming the carefully planned existing circulation.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego\u2019s (MCASD) director and CEO defended the institution against a claim by international architects and historians who\u2019ve branded work which will destroy the museum\u2019s post-modern entryway as “a tremendous mistake.” One of two MCASD campuses, the oceanfront La Jolla branch has been closed since January 2017.\u00a0 An addition\/retrofit, scheduled […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Museum of Contemporary Art?redesign faces architects\u2019 criticisms","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}