After failing to break ground for more than a decade, the Korean American National Museum project is back to square one.
The Korean-American community is holding a public hearing on March 21 to address the problems with the project and demand transparency.
The board of directors of the Korean American National Museum announced on March 19 that it is reviewing a new design amid delays in the LA city government’s administrative process.
The new architectural design reviewed by the board is a stand-alone building. If it moves forward, the design will have changed more than four times, including the ‘apartment + museum’ proposal. At the same time, it is a decision to go back to the starting point since the first design was announced in April 2013, when it was proposed to be built as a stand-alone building.
“The design was changed to a more modern and streamlined design to reduce costs, as construction costs have been rising sharply since 2019,” Shinae Yoon, secretary general of the museum, told the Korea Daily on March 20, adding, “We were convinced that we would not be able to proceed with construction at the previously estimated cost of $35 million to $40 million.”
However, the design change is not the only issue. The Korean American National Museum said the project has been hampered by administrative issues with the city of Los Angeles.
“We have to coordinate with 10th District Councilmember Heather Hutt and the L.A. City Attorney’s Office, which is handling legal matters,” the museum said in a press release, “and the board of directors is currently working diligently to resolve these issues with the assistance of pro bono legal services.”
Regarding the legal coordination, Yoon said only that she had “forwarded (the question) to the board.”
In the meantime, the project is virtually on hold. The museum’s website (kanmuseum.org) has long since been shut down. According to the legal documents, the nonprofit organization’s registration is still listed as “delinquent” (as of March 20) because the museum has not submitted the relevant documents.
According to the museum, it was notified by the authorities in September last year that the documents were overdue and realized that they were not submitted. If this is true, it means that the board’s registration status was marked as ‘incomplete’ for failing to submit IRS Form 990 for several years, including in 2016, indicating that it was operated negligently enough to go unnoticed for years.
“We submitted the documents for the missing years and the $650 registration fee at the end of last year, and it should be corrected soon,” Yoon said, explaining that it was an administrative error caused by a miscommunication with the accounting firm Choi-Kim-Park LLP, which was hired as the auditor.
The sudden release of the press release likely reflects the upcoming public hearing on March 21. The ‘Citizens’ Committee to Build the Korean-American Museum’ (tentative name) will hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. on March 21, at the Korean Education Center in Los Angeles (KECLA) at 680 Wilshire Place.
The public hearing will feature testimony from attorney Dongsung Seo, who served on the board of directors during the early stages of the museum’s development, and Byungyong Min, director of the Korean American History Museum, including Dr. Hwitaek Jeon. Also in attendance will be representatives from LA City Councilmember Heather Hutt’s office and community organizers.
“The current board of directors is practically dysfunctional, and the project is uncertain due to the lack of transparency in its finances,” said Christopher Lee, an architect who will moderate the public hearing. “Through the public hearing, we hope to share issues with the public and collect opinions to find ways to revitalize the forgotten Korean American Museum project.”
Currently, a petition is underway to demand the revitalization of the project. This movement reflects the current management issues of the board. As of March 20, more than 250 people have signed the petition, and it is to have 10,000 signatures.
The Korean American Museum has been a long-awaited project of the Korean-American community since 1991 when it was founded by David Hyun, a senior architect, and led by Susan Ahn, daughter of ‘Dosan’ Ahn Chang Ho, Colonel Youngok Kim, and Olympic gold medalist Dr. Sammy Lee.
The city of Los Angeles granted a long-term lease of the site to the museum for almost free in 2013, but the project has been stalled ever since.
“It was promoted as a new project after the formation of the current board of directors, including the late chairman Myungki Hong and chairman Jaemin Jang, in 2015,” the board of directors of the Korean American Museum said in a press release on March 19, “and it is a completely different project from the project that was carried out in the early 1990s under the name of ‘Korean American Museum’.”
“I don’t understand why the current board is denying the history of the project,” said Min of the Korean American History Museum. “At that time, many Koreans came together, and in that context, the project has been going on until now, so it makes no sense that it is a different project now.”
BY YEOL JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.yeol@koreadaily.com]
