Yoshio Taniguchi

The moment of truth is fast approaching for Yoshio Taniguchi's remake of the Museum of Modern Art and all is not ready. With Saturday's opening just a few days off, the galleries and sculpture garden await finishing touches, the fine-dining restaurant is two months from completion and the education building has even further to go. But the mastermind of MoMA's $425-million renovation and expansion has come to terms with the project.

Thank you, Christopher Hawthorne, for your beautifully written piece on Yoshio Taniguchi's new design for the Museum of Modern Art in New York ["A Space of Artistic Grace," Nov. 17]. It is such a pleasure to read a critique that conveys the feeling of air, purity of design and modern grandeur of the new design. Judith Samuel Santa Monica

Thank you, Christopher Hawthorne, for your beautifully written piece on Yoshio Taniguchi's new design for the Museum of Modern Art in New York ["A Space of Artistic Grace," Nov. 17]. It is such a pleasure to read a critique that conveys the feeling of air, purity of design and modern grandeur of the new design. Judith Samuel Santa Monica

Nearly a decade ago, the Museum of Modern Art began planning to expand its cramped collection of buildings on 53rd Street in Manhattan -- the fifth such effort since the Modern was founded in 1929. It came at a time when the world of architecture, particularly museum architecture, was feeling the first rumblings of what turned out be a tectonic shift.

Nearly a decade ago, the Museum of Modern Art began planning to expand its cramped collection of buildings on 53rd Street in Manhattan -- the fifth such effort since the Modern was founded in 1929. It came at a time when the world of architecture, particularly museum architecture, was feeling the first rumblings of what turned out be a tectonic shift.

American choreographer Merce Cunningham and painter Robert Ryman are among the winners of this year's Praemium Imperiale awards, announced today by the Japan Art Assn. for lifetime achievement in arts categories not recognized by the Nobel prizes. Other winners are fashion designer Issey Miyake of Japan for sculpture, Yoshio Taniguchi of Japan for architecture and pianist Martha Argerich of Argentina for music.

It's one of the most anticipated moves to Manhattan. After two years -- and an $850-million expenditure -- the Museum of Modern Art returns this fall to West 53rd Street from temporary digs in Queens. Since its inception in 1929 with an initial gift of eight prints and a drawing, the collection has grown to one of the world's premiere art collections, with more than 135,000 pieces of modern art and design.

Never mind the $20 admission fee. Art lovers by the thousands -- maybe even the millions -- are dying to see the latest incarnation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In process for seven years, the massive renovation and expansion designed by Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi will be unveiled Nov. 20.

As architecture has turned into the glamour puss of the arts, the work of high-profile architects has become a staple among museum exhibitions. And like shows of painting, sculpture and other visual arts, architecture surveys are generally organized by staff curators or independent professionals to present their particular viewpoints. "Frank O. Gehry: Work in Progress," at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003, was MOCA curator Brooke Hodge's project.

In an apparent strategy to gain access to the united European Economic Community market after 1992, Japan's largest industrial group announced Tuesday that it was negotiating with its West German counterpart to expand cooperation in electronics, aerospace and a range of other fields. Mitsubishi Corp.

The moment of truth is fast approaching for Yoshio Taniguchi's remake of the Museum of Modern Art and all is not ready. With Saturday's opening just a few days off, the galleries and sculpture garden await finishing touches, the fine-dining restaurant is two months from completion and the education building has even further to go. But the mastermind of MoMA's $425-million renovation and expansion has come to terms with the project.

Frank Lloyd Wright's wood-block model for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Paper neckties with flowery designs by Picasso. Mies van der Rohe's "projects-general correspondence 1920's 1930's." MoMA's first guestbook from 1929. A rich trove of background for all the legendary works in the Museum of Modern Art will become more accessible to the public with the opening today of MoMA's new education and research building in Midtown Manhattan.

Last autumn, downtown L.A.'s most visible architectural splash came in the form of Walt Disney Concert Hall, that shiny paean to orchestral music -- sometimes too shiny, as nearby condo and apartment dwellers pointed out when the sun's reflection off Frank Gehry's signature curves caused temperatures, and tempers, to rise inside their high-rise homes.