LACMA, David Geffen Galleries

The David Geffen Galleries is LACMA's new home for its permanent collection, designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and opened to the public on April 19, 2026. Crafted from architectural concrete and glass, the building spans Wilshire Boulevard as a single elevated gallery floor of 110,000 square feet, lifted roughly 30 feet above Hancock Park on seven pavilions that create 3.5 acres of shaded public space below. Inside, terrace galleries with floor-to-ceiling windows, plaza-like courtyard galleries, and intimate interior rooms hold thousands of objects spanning 6,000 years of art from around the world. Rather than uniform lighting, Zumthor designed the galleries so that light and shadow work in dialogue, with custom mineral glazes tinting the concrete walls in dusky red, vibrant blue, and black. The surrounding plaza is paved with Mariana Castillo Deball's Feathered Changes, which at 220,000 square feet is among the largest artworks in the world. The park-level pavilions house the LACMA Store, the W.M. Keck Education Center, and Erewhon at LACMA, with a restaurant, wine bar, and theater to follow.