Los Angeles, the heart of the southwestern megalopolis, increasingly likes to refer to itself as the financial headquarters of the emerging “Pacific Rim” economy. Consequently, in the last ten years a fleet of oversized skyscrapers has drastically reshaped the central city in imitation of downtown New York, the ultimate model for all financial centers. What the rest of the country still thinks of as the archetypal sprawling city is now punctuated by a surprisingly dense core of mostly undistinguished behemoths; and future building seems set to follow the same vertical lines.
Against these huge mirrored surroundings, the scale and finish of Arata Isozaki’s recently completed building for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, itself a new institution, are very carefully conceived. Its diminutive profile is more overwhelmed than overwhelming. The visitor can stand on the sidewalk before the facade of the museum’s central mass, which drops straight to the property line, and still easily see the top of the wall, with sky beyond. The architect compares his finely scaled assemblage of shapes to a village huddling in a valley of skyscrapers; it is not hard to foresee the day when the museum will become a small oasis amid Manhattanesque canyons.
Nearly as distinctive as the modest proportions is the rough, persimmon-colored Indian sandstone that covers most of the building’s exterior. The sandstone is clearly a hit. Part of its fascination is the precision with which the stone has been applied, particularly in contrast with the
