A Benedictine chronicler once wrote of a "white mantle of churches" stretched across medieval France. In a related way, America in the past century has mantled itself with museums, as the temple of art gradually replaced the church as the emblematic focus of civic self-esteem. Now, two grand projects by leading American architects, utterly different from each other in purpose, appearance and design philosophy, may be said to mark the climax of the age of American museum expansion. One is in Los Angeles and opens officially in December--though small flotillas of previewing VIPS have been trawling through it for the past...
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