Broad Museum opening delayed until 2015

Rendering of new plaza from the Broad Museum

The people behind the broad, led by Eli Broad, have been saying for months that the $140 million contemporary art museum on Bunker Hill would open by the end of 2014. Now, says Jori Finkel in the New York Times, the completion date has been pushed back to sometime in 2015. “We expect to announce the opening date later this year,” said Karen Denne, the Broad Foundations spokeswoman. The distinctive honeycomb-style concrete-and-steel veil around the building is taking longer than expected, Denne said.

From the NYT story:

On the plus side, the delay gives the museum, which will offer free admission, more time to develop its campus downtown — including a restaurant.

Mr. Broad has invested in friends’ restaurants over the years, but he is now entering the field in a bigger way: He has formed a joint venture with Bill Chait, the force behind Bestia, République and Picca, to develop a restaurant next to the museum.

Other partners in the restaurant are alumni of Thomas Keller restaurants: Rory Herrmann, formerly of Bouchon Beverly Hills, who has signed on as director of culinary operations, and Timothy Hollingsworth, a former head chef of the French Laundry in the Napa Valley, who will be executive chef.

While the menu is still being developed, Mr. Hollingsworth described the vision as distinct from the Thomas Keller model. “It’s not going to be an ultrafine-dining restaurant or the taco concept I talked about opening up, which I will still do in the future,” he said. “We’re thinking more about approachable food with familiar flavors.”

The restaurant will be in a separate building and does not yet have an architect attached, Finkel writes. The Broad has released a video on plans for the restaurant and a public plaza at the museum. "For me the design of the plaza is the most meaningful bit of news here," writes Christopher Hawthorne in the LA Times.