Piano and Pali Split on Academy Museum

During the Oscars broadcast on March 2 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) revealed renderings of their planned museum that will occupy and expand the May department store next to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA, which is in its own process of expanding, care of Peter Zumthor). What should have been a time for architecture to shine in front of a huge audience was instead cringe inducing. A number of critics wondered what got into Renzo Piano, the lead architect on the design as well as the architect of LACMA's newest building next door. The headline of LA Times critic Christopher Hawthorne's piece a month after the Oscars summed it up: "Design tweaks can't overcome Academy Museum's dramatic flaws."

The latest twist thrown into the story of realizing the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is the eviction of local architect Zoltan Pali and his firm SPF:a from the team. Per a statement the Academy said: "As is customary with projects of this nature as they move closer to a final design, we are engaging an executive architecture firm to realize the vision created by the primary architects, Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali. This being the case, Pali will now be stepping back from the project. ... Moving forward, the executive architectural design firm will be responsible for creating the detailed construction drawings as the project prepares for groundbreaking." Who that executive architect is not known right now. Pali was a logical choice, considering his firm was working on renovating the May building when the Academy took it over.