Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) got a new plan for becoming the largest art museum in L.A. with a new 368,000-square foot complex by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Museum director Michael Govan said the project was groundbreaking in creating a structure with “no back, no front.” The plans are to create a large, continuous gallery elevated high above the museum’s site in a structure that would span across Wilshire Boulevard to the south. It would be lifted above the ground on a series of seven pavilion towers that house public galleries, conservation spaces, circulation, ground level cafes and restaurants, and an amphitheater.

A continuously overhanging roof that runs the length would shield the museum’s collection from southern sun. According to the architect, this design creates conditions that allow patrons to “make personal discoveries” within artworks and the organization of small, oddly-shaped galleries with connections to the outdoors.

The project aims to finish the project by 2023, in time for the opening of a new subway extension along Wilshire Boulevard.

(via Arch Paper)