2 Donors Give $75 Million for Modernist New LACMA Building

LOS ANGELES, CA - An effort to raise $600 million or more for a modernist building to serve as the new home of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is getting a major boost, thanks to two major donations announced this morning.

Elaine Wynn, who is one of the world's top art collectors and became a museum co-chair last year, has pledged $50 million to the project, a LACMA statement said this morning. At the same time, former Univision chairman A. Jerrold Perenchio has promised $25 million, it said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors previously approved $125 million for the construction project. With the new pledges from Wynn and Perenchio, and the county money, LACMA said the total amount committed for the project now stands at $275 million.

Michael Govan, LACMA's director, told the Los Angeles Times that he is extremely optimistic that the balance will be raised.

"Everything that is new and fun and earth-shattering is happening in L.A., and we want to be the bellwether of all that energy," said Wynn, who co- founded Mirage Resorts and Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas with her former husband, Steve Wynn.

The new pledges are contingent on the successful launch of the new Peter Zumthor-designed building project, which begins the environmental review process this summer, The Times reported. If all goes as planned, construction would begin in 2018 and be completed in 2023.

If completed, the new building would rank as one of the most important works of architecture to be built in Los Angeles since Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall opened in 2003. Local leaders see the sleek design by Zumthor, a Swiss architect, as crucial to lifting LACMA to the top ranks of the world's art museums.

City News Service; Wikimedia Commons