LACMA Opens Peter Zumthor's David Geffen Galleries — A 900-Foot Building Spanning Wilshire Boulevard

On Sunday, April 19, 2026, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) opened the David Geffen Galleries to the public — the new home of its permanent collection and the most consequential museum opening in Los Angeles in decades. Designed by Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor, the elevated, 900-foot-long building stretches across Wilshire Boulevard, transforming the museum into a continuous, unified exhibition space.

A signature feature: the entire collection is displayed on a single level, eliminating the implicit hierarchies that traditional museum floor plans impose between cultures, eras and media. Visitors can wander a "field of art" rather than follow a prescribed path, encountering ancient ceramics next to contemporary photography, or African textiles next to European painting. Director Michael Govan has described the design as a refusal of the "museum-as-pyramid" model.

“Designed by Pritzker laureate Peter Zumthor, the elevated, 900-foot-long building stretches across Wilshire Boulevard, transforming the museum into a continuous, unified exhibition space.”

The opening week drew large crowds, an opening gala that raised nearly $11.5 million (a LACMA fundraising record), and a public conversation between Zumthor and Govan on April 22 as part of the museum's Genesis Talks series. Members and donors were given priority access from April 19 through May 3 before the galleries opened to all ticket holders.

The David Geffen Galleries are the centerpiece of LACMA's decade-long expansion, which also adds a theater, education spaces, restaurants, a gift shop, and 3.5 acres of art-filled outdoor space. For Los Angeles — a city often defined by sprawl rather than civic landmarks — the new building offers a public, civic anchor where art, architecture and the everyday life of the boulevard meet.