Museum design in Los Angeles: the beginning or the end of the ‘dinosaurs’?

Abstract

It is frequently said that we have come to the end of an era of costly and monumental public building projects and that dwindling budgets have forced a major shift in architectural emphasis to small‐scale, modest initiatives. Not so, says Frances Anderton, who describes the museum building boom in Los Angeles where West Coast innovation in content, technology and sheer creativity flourishes side by side with more traditional East Coast architectural conceptions. The author is an architect, freelance journalist and radio producer. She was assistant editor of The Architectural Review (London) and former editor‐in‐chiefofLA Architect.