Almost six years ago, when most of the world was sheltering at home under Covid restrictions, crews tore down several structures on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art campus to make way for Swiss architect Peter Zumthor’s soaring David Geffen Galleries. The three demolished structures were part of the original 1965 scheme by LA modernist architect William L. Pereira and included a never-loved 1986 addition by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. Within weeks, what had been a living, breathing piece of somewhat mediocre architecture was reduced to rubble.

Artist Cayetano Ferrer extracted fragments from the pile with the help of the demolition contractors and a tacit okay from the museum. He then exhibited large chunks—decorative columns that once graced the façade—in a storefront in Pasadena and made plans to present them in a public park in West Hollywood, which never came to fruition. Read More …