NEW SITE FOR PRESIDIO MUSEUM?; LACMA DONATION UNDER COUNTY SCRUTINY
Presidio Trust officials made it clear last week that Don Fisher won’t be allowed to plant a one-hundred-thousand-square-foot museum in the heart of the “Main Post” area of the army base–turned–national park, writes John King in the San Francisco Chronicle. But they also indicated that if the Gap founder shifts his gaze one block south, he’ll probably win the support of the trust and many of Fisher’s most influential critics. The question now is whether the project will happen—or whether it no longer can be salvaged. In December, the Fisher family unveiled plans for the museum it wants to build—a faceted box of white concrete and glass designed by Gluckman Mayner Architects of New York, working with local WRNS Studio. Neighbors wary of any new activity in the 1,491-acre park opposed the plan, and so did casual observers put off by the flat-topped modern look. The real sticking point: Preservation experts warned that the museum could violate the Presidio’s status as a National Historic Landmark District. They objected to placing a large modern structure at Fisher’s chosen site, poised between redbrick barracks from the 1890s and the original Spanish settlement, at the crest of a seven-acre parking lot that is to become a landscaped “parade ground.” This reaction by such groups as the National Trust for Historic Preservation forced Presidio officials into a set of formal reviews, including meetings with historic architects and cultural-resource specialists. The “verdict” was revealed at a public meeting Wednesday: The size and design of Fisher’s museum would overwhelm its setting. Said Chandler McCoy, the Presidio Trust’s associate director for planning, “It’s essentially too big for the site.”
In other news from California: As Artforum.com has previously reported, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art donated a total of nine hundred thousand dollars to support Measure R, a sales-tax increase that voters narrowly passed on November 4. The measure raises money for transportation projects, including a $4.2 billion “subway to the sea” below Wilshire Boulevard that goes right by the museum. Now, perturbed by LACMA’s donation, the county’s board of supervisors yesterday questioned whether the museum needs the six million dollars it has requested, according to the Contra Costa Times_. The museum’s nonprofit Museum Associates made the donation to the campaign for the half-percent sales-tax increase. The donation was the largest made for the measure, which will raise thirty billion to forty billion dollars over thirty years for transportation projects. County supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said it was inappropriate for the museum to spend nine hundred thousand dollars to engage in a political campaign to raise taxes in the county. The board voted to direct county chief executive officer Bill Fujioka to look into the matter. “If they have nearly one million dollars to spend on campaigns, then they obviously don’t need additional funds to operate their facility,” Antonovich said. “Their function is to provide a service to the community, providing the best art museum we have and using their resources to enhance the opportunities for all of our young and old to have an opportunity to see the wonderful pieces of art we have in our collection.” But LACMA officials say transportation problems rank high on visitor surveys about reasons preventing them from frequenting the twenty-acre facility. “Like all major cultural institutions in Los Angeles, LACMA is dependent on an efficient transportation system to deliver visitors to its door,” said LACMA spokeswoman Barbara Pflaumer. “We felt supporting the campaign for Measure R was a very cost-efficient way of ensuring increased visitorship in the future.”
