\t\t\t\t\tPeople walk around the new David Geffen Galleries building at LACMA on April 15, 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrederic J. BROWN\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAt LACMA, the most glaring problem has been just that \u2014 the glare. Its Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor had never built anything at this scale, and never in relentless desert light. His concept of wraparound, floor-to-ceiling gallery windows is negligent, and the attempted remedy of instituting semi-transparent metallic curtains hasn\u2019t fixed the issue. Throughout any given day, even when overcast, there are reflection challenges occluding parts of the collection. Meanwhile, the Lucas Museum building, orchestrated by a man who spent his film career calibrating light apertures, and designed by the attentive architect Ma Yansong, allows for similar expansive, elevated views across the city from dedicated alcoves while (sensibly!) retaining controlled light within the interior gallery spaces.<\/p>\n \n\tThe other significant point of contrast is the facilities\u2019 grounds. Zumthor\u2019s sprawling building, raised 30 feet and comprised of 85,000 cubic yards of concrete spanning across Wilshire Blvd., shadows a comically bleak, vast hardscape expanse most comparable to a freeway underpass that\u2019s especially unwelcoming for children and the elderly. It\u2019s the stuff of the late L.A. urban theorist Mike Davis\u2019 dystopic nightmares. Whereas at the Lucas Museum, the veteran local landscape designer Mia Lehrer has conducted a lesson in topographical storytelling with regional vegetation that draws on California\u2019s varied terrain. It complements Ma\u2019s cloudlike structure (which, unlike the Zumthor edifice, features extensive rooftop greenery) and is itself manifestly community spirited.<\/p>\n