Now that he's catalogued the architectural failings of Eli Broad, LA's biggest arts patron, LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne asks "Who's next?" That is, "If Broad does begin to move away from the public stage, who might step in to take his place, or to fashion a new kind of architectural patronage in Los Angeles?" He's asked the experts and come up with a list of four potentials. There's Wallis Annenberg, chairman and president of the Annenberg Foundation, who's behind the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, and fellow scion Casey Wasserman, who's currently working with AEG to bring the NFL to downtown .
LACMA director Michael Govan hasn't seemed too excited about the Broad-driven Renzo Piano projects at the museum, but is working with architect Peter Zumthor on a new master plan. And City Council President/potential future mayor Eric Garcetti still has Echo Park pissed at him for allowing that giant church garage, but we do know he has good personal taste. Oh yeah, and then there's Los Angeles itself, and not in some hokey metaphorical sense either: "If the city were simply to put an intelligently designed system of design competitions into place for new public buildings and other projects, it could promote more positive changes to the urban landscape than the combined efforts of a dozen new patrons." Wait, but what's that we hear in the distance? Oprah is coming! Oprah is coming!
(And meanwhile, giddy with list-making fever, Hawthorne tells Broad how to build a better architect shortlist and suggests locals Michael Maltzan Architecture, wHY Architecture, Frohn & Rojas, Daly Genik, and Ball-Nogues.)
· Critic's Notebook: Who will follow Eli Broad as L.A.'s architectural patron? [LAT]
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