Museum Left Hanging On Home

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Architects dream up iconic buildings built to last decades. But L.A.’s Architecture and Design Museum is just looking to find a home for more than a few years.

The museum opened in 2001 in a space at the Bradbury Building in downtown Los Angeles donated by Ira Yellin. When he died in 2002, the museum began shuttling between locations provided rent free by local developers and is now on its fourth home.

“The caveat was always that when the developer was ready to lease to a market tenant, we would have to move on,” said Executive Director Tibbie Dunbar.

The museum moved into its current home on the Miracle Mile in early 2010, and Dunbar hoped that the museum’s nomadic life had ended. But in 2011, Dunbar became aware that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority planned to raze the Wilshire Boulevard block to build a subway station for the Purple Line Extension.

“It was beyond shocking,” she said.

But Dunbar decided to use the imminent eviction as a way to motivate potential donors to rally behind the museum.

“We looked at it an opportunity to move to a bigger and better situation,” she said.

At the annual fundraiser at the museum June 28, Dunbar will screen a video to call for donations toward helping the museum find a new home.

While she is looking at potential locations all over the city, she hopes to get something close to the museum’s original roots.

“There are a lot of great spaces downtown,” she said.

– Matt Pressberg

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