Petersen Automotive Museum to get a Modern Makeover [w/Video]

Sure, we get modern architecture, design and flamboyant ideas, and we really appreciate the crazier stuff we see, whether that may be buildings, cars, planes or boats. However, there’s always a back story associated with these very noticeable projects, and the one behind the Petersen Automotive Museum and its proposed makeover raises many questions…

The plan is to have it covered in what looks to me like…metallic toilet paper (an all-new façade), increase the exhibit space by 15,000 square feet and continue to adjust the selection of cars on display until it fits the profile of the place better.

This will be accomplished with the help of typically-named NY-based architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates which has the stated goal of turning the Petersen into “a place you’d want to be at because these cars are works of art. That is what this building will now do. It will fully represent the car as art.”

Still, some have shown concern that this is nothing more than a corporate move carried out by businessmen, not enthusiasts, and it has really nothing to do with the heritage and the real purpose of the museum, which is housed in an old 1962 department store. The makeover announcement comes a few weeks after it became known that those in charge had begun selling off some of the cars – this caused some outrage, as Hemmings reports.

Work is said to begin in March of 2014, and the plan is to finish within the confines of the same year. In addition, in order to counter some of the flack they’ve recently received, a post was made recently on the official site’s own blog, where the long term plans and decisions already made are explained – it may offer some clarification for those interested.

By Andrei Nedelea

Ed. Note: The Petersen Automotive Museum is located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile neighborhood of Los Angeles – see Google Maps below.

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