Despite Inner Strife, MOCA Creeps into Little Tokyo

On Monday, The Museum of Contemporary Art announced plans for a major three-story, 90,000 sf expansion, to be built in a parking lot adjacent to their current Geffen Contemporary warehouse location in Little Tokyo. Program calls for 18,000 sf of exhibition space, 6,000 sf of educational space, and a whopping 66,000 sf of storage, to help unload some of the pressure at the Grand Ave location. The plan will be presented to the Zoning Administration on April 14 and will require subsequent approval from the Community Redevelopment Agency, which has jurisdiction over downtown development.

But this comes at a funny time for the museum. Last November MOCA released news of a searing financial quandary, spurred by reckless spending and a shrinking endowment. The institution was bailed out soon after by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad. But Broad's $30 million gift was an exertion of powerful control, and prompted the resignation of MOCA's director Jeremy Strick. As he has done with LACMA, Broad quickly took the reigns, shuttering the Little Tokyo annex and slashing budget and staff by 20%. Whether Broad has been given or has exerted too much control is debatable and frankly, moot - no one else has his will or spending power.

The project will be a slow one - 5 years until groundbreaking after approval and 18 months of construction thereafter. But with the museum walking on dangerously thin ice, no one is complaining about slow growth. Dubious of bank credit and public contribution, the project will be funded exclusively by private donations. An interesting design feature of the museum's plan is a glass partition system enclosing the storage space, allowing visitors to see pieces that aren't on exhibit. Now if only the museum's frivolous spending practices could be made more transparent.