MOCA at the Temporary Contemporary Opens While MOCA, designed by celebrated Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, was under construction, the museum opened an interim exhibition space called the Temporary Contemporary in fall 1983. When it was built in the 1940s, the space was a hardware store; subsequently, it was used as a city warehouse and police car garage. At that time, the Temporary Contemporary initially had a five-year lease from the city at a rate of $1.00 per year. Subtly renovated by renowned California architect Frank Gehry, the Temporary Contemporary immediately captivated critics and museum patrons alike with its accessibility, informality, and lack of pretension. In The New York Times, John Russell referred to it as "a prince among spaces," and William Wilson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it "instantly had the hospitable aura of a people's museum." These two appraisals still hold true today. The first public event at the Temporary Contemporary was the presentation in September 1983 of a newly commissioned performance piece, Available Light, with music by John Adams, stage design by Frank Gehry, choreography by Lucinda Childs, and costumes by Ronaldus Shamask. This immediately established MOCA's commitment to media and performing arts. In November 1983 MOCA presented its first exhibition, The First Show: Painting and Sculpture from 1940-1980. Comprised of approximately 150 works from eight private collections in the United States and Europe, the exhibition was a critical success and earned MOCA the reputation as a major presence in the national and international art world. In its first three years of programming MOCA mounted major exhibitions, including the work of Jonathan Borofsky, John Chamberlain, Dan Flavin, Red Grooms, Allen Ruppersberg, and James Turrell. These exhibitions underscored the museum's adventuresome course and demonstrated the unique ability of the Temporary Contemporary to accommodate work ranging from Flavin's fluorescent 'monuments' for V. Tatlin from Dan Flavin to Turrell's light, space, and perceptual pieces to Chamberlain's heroically scaled crushed-metal sculptures. The museum also commissioned new works by Michael Asher, Michael Heizer, Maria Nordman, and Robert Therrien, among others. Due to the popularity and extraordinary suitability of the building for exhibiting contemporary art, the museum's Board requested that the City of Los Angeles extend MOCA's lease on the facility for 50 years, until the year 2038. That request was granted in early 1986; in 1996 the city extended the lease even further. The same year MOCA received a $5 million gift from The David Geffen Foundation in support of the museum's endowment drive. In recognition of this extraordinary gift, the Temporary Contemporary was renamed MOCA at The Geffen Contemporary.