Looking to the landscape as fertile ground

Real dogs would likely cower if they encountered Jeff Koons’ 10-foot-tall “Balloon Dog (Blue)” in the BCAM galleries -- but no dogs allowed. Dogs on a leash, however, will be welcome in the park area on LACMA’s campus, which seeks to maximize its outdoor appeal as it undergoes massive re-landscaping over the next two to three years in Phase 2 of LACMA’s transformation.

Along with adding more green space, LACMA will launch a long-range effort to add more art alfresco: In 2010 or thereabouts, expect to see the Michael Heizer sculpture “Levitated Slot Mass” appear at the corner of 6th Street and Fairfax Avenue -- you can’t miss it, the piece will include a 420-ton rock.

An even bigger outdoor artwork, Koons’ “Train” -- which would dangle a 70-foot fabricated train from the top of a 161-foot crane -- is undergoing a feasibility study. If the project is deemed “engineerable,” it would be installed in approximately 2010-11 on the Wilshire side of the BP Grand Entrance.

And two sculptures by James Turrell will be placed on the roof of the rehabilitated LACMA West, the former May Co. building. Details are to be announced.

-- Diane Haithman