LACMA’s big rock will finally roll Tuesday
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It’s official: After nearly half a year of delays, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 340-ton monolith, sitting in a Riverside County quarry, will finally begin its journey to the museum on Tuesday night.
The rock will hit the road on its custom-built transporter between 10 and 11p.m. and travel at the painstakingly slow speed of about 5 miles per hour. It’s due to arrive at LACMA in the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, March 10.
From there -- likely the following Monday, the museum says -- the boulder will be loaded into its final resting place outside the Resnick Pavilion, where it will form the center of artist Michael Heizer’s enormous sculpture, “Levitated Mass.”
The rock will travel through four counties and 22 cities, so it’s no surprise that the numerous delays have been mostly due to permit issues -- not to mention the mind-boggling logistics of moving a two-story-high chunk of granite, weighing 680,000 pounds, through congested urban areas.
Which is partly why, on Tuesday night, quarry owner Stephen Vanderhart will throw a reception for approximately 300 people to see the rock off, complete with a BBQ truck and a DJ.
Culture Monster will be there, of course, with updates throughout the evening. And, hey, we may even score one of Vanderhart’s custom T-shirts bearing the sentiment “Big. Rock. Roll.”
ALSO:
Between a rock and LACMA, it’s a hard place
LACMA director Michael Govan dreams big
From Riverside to Los Angeles: The Heizer rock’s roundabout route
Interactive: Getting the rock ready to roll
--Deborah Vankin
