Michael Heizer's City as Precedent for LACMA's David Geffen Galleries

LACMA director Michael Govan confirms that the museum's new $730 million David Geffen Galleries, designed by Peter Zumthor with SOM, draw directly from land art precedents, particularly Michael Heizer's monumental City in Nevada's Garden Valley. Govan, who backed City as Dia Art Foundation president from 1994 to 2006, raised nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars for the new building. The Geffen Galleries consist of two concrete plates—one 30 feet above ground, another 20 feet higher—each 900 feet long, wrapped in continuous glass. Art is displayed without obvious order or signage, encouraging extemporaneous movement. City, which Heizer started building 55 years ago and opened in 2022, spans hundreds of football fields with eyebrow-shaped berms, circular depressions, and mastaba-like constructions. Govan had previously created Dia:Beacon, MASS MoCA, and now LACMA—four sprawling art pilgrimage sites. Zumthor, who worked with Walter De Maria on unrealized pavilions for Dia, acknowledges the influence of land art on his design. The building's early amoeboid, black renderings referenced the La Brea Tar Pits; the finished version is light gray concrete with discoloration. Heizer's Levitated Mass (2012) sits in LACMA's backyard, its floating illusion compromised by metal brackets. City admits only six visitors at a time for three-hour walks. Govan brought City's qualities to LACMA, though the Geffen Galleries, while flawed, will be experienced by millions.