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LACMA's[1] own press release names the day: the David Geffen Galleries "open April 19". The museum is announcing its own building, so the date needs no inference.- Start
- Apr 19, 202695% CONFIDENCElacma.org
LACMA Opens Peter Zumthor's David Geffen Galleries
LACMA's permanent collection moved into a new home on 19 April 2026: a 275-metre curved building of glass and concrete that steps over Wilshire Boulevard on splayed piers, lifting 10,220 square metres of galleries some nine metres above the street. It completes a campus rebuild two decades in the making, replacing four of the museum's ageing buildings with a single level where the collection is shown without a fixed route through it.
- The David Geffen Galleries, designed by Peter Zumthor, open at LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, on 19 April 2026 as the permanent collection's new home.[1]
- Search coverage describes a single curving floor of roughly 110,000 square feet of galleries that spans Wilshire Boulevard on a bridge, about 900 feet long and raised some 30 feet above the ground.[3][4]
- The project was funded by a $150 million gift from David Geffen plus more than $700 million in other support, with the building's cost reported at around $724 million, though sources cite figures between $715 million and $750 million.[4]
- Michael Govan began talking with Zumthor in the mid-2000s after taking over LACMA, and the design was redrawn over the years in response to public debate, budget limits and environmental concerns, so the opening comes roughly fourteen years after the commission.[3][4]
- The old campus was a mix of 1960s modernist buildings and later additions, and the new galleries replace that patchwork with one horizontal structure that works as a bridge-building.[3]
- Inside, the galleries form a continuous loop with no hierarchy between wings, so visitors choose their own path rather than following a fixed route.[3]
- The inaugural installation drops strict chronological or regional order and is organised around the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea, placing African, Asian, European, American and Pre-Columbian works in surprising juxtapositions.[1][3]
Project specs
SourceFloor area
110K sq ft
110,000 sq ft
Stated by the source · Figures as stated in the pin's own cited summary.
Cost $724M
Tickets
Buy ticketsOn sale (as of Nov 7, 2026)
| Adults | $30 |
|---|---|
| Adults, L.A. County residentsWith valid ID | $25 |
| Seniors (65+)With ID; $21 for L.A. County residents | $26 |
| Students (18+)With ID; $21 for L.A. County residents | $26 |
| Visitors with disability$21 for L.A. County residents | $26 |
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| Youth (3–12)Free for L.A. County residents | $15 |
| Youth (2 & under) | Free |
| Members | Free |