BCAM, Light Show Considered: Architecture Critic Hawthorne Weighs In

Up to bat and facing the LA Times architectural desk: The Broad Contemporary Art Museum on Wilshire. The new Renzo Piano-designed building gets neither an overwhelmingly positive nor overwhelmingly negative review by the paper's critic Christopher Hawthorne, who seems to like that BCAM's exterior "spider" adds a "playfulness to a building" but also points out BCAM is "well-behaved to a fault, with gallery spaces that are hushed and relentlessly rectilinear." Most of his critique is reserved for noting how benefactor Eli Broad's desired a more traditional approach with the museum, while LACMA's director, Michael Govan, strove for a more modern interpretation of public space. (The two men are three decades apart in age, notes Hawthorne.) And he remains maddeningly elusive on whether he likes or dislikes Chris Burden's light installation. On the one hand, it's a "joy to walk through," while it's also a "one sizable and very insistent piece of art." But tell us how you really feel. [Via flickr user elynnart]
· Broad Contemporary Art Museum [LA Times]