Model of West Coast Museum of TV & Radio Unveiled : Museum: The 23,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open late next year in Beverly Hills.

The new West Coast branch of New York’s Museum of Television & Radio will be named after Leonard H. Goldenson, who built ABC into a major broadcasting force, it was announced Wednesday.

At a news conference unveiling a model of the three-level Goldenson building, which will be located at the southwest corner of North Beverly Drive and Little Santa Monica in Beverly Hills, museum President Robert Batscha estimated that the facility will attract between 50,000 and 100,000 visitors a year.

The architect, Richard Meier, also designed the new Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Already a presence in Los Angeles with its annual TV festival showcasing individuals and programs of the past and present, the New York-based museum, through modern technology, now will make its entire collection available to visitors at the West Coast facility, which is scheduled to open late next year.

“The new building establishes the Museum of Television & Radio as a permanent part of the cultural and educational environment in California,” said Frank A. Bennack Jr., chairman of the museum’s board of trustees and president of the Hearst Corp. He added that the 23,000-square-foot facility is “a testament to the significant role that television and radio play in modern society.”

Batscha emphasized that “the critical aspect is that we are open to the public. Anyone can come in.” Bennack said that beneficiaries would include students and “future practitioners” in the broadcasting field.

According to Batscha, about $7 million of the $10-million cost of the facility already has been raised. Producer Loreen Arbus, daughter of Goldenson, said her father had contributed about $2 million. Other major donors who were announced Wednesday and contributed at least $100,000 each included CBS, NBC, Capital Cities/ABC, Time Warner, the Hearst Corp., MCA, Sony Corp. and the William S. Paley Foundation.

Paley, the late and longtime chairman of CBS, founded the New York museum.

At the news conference, it was also announced that “certain areas of the California facility will be named for the donors who have made specific contributions.” For example, “the Board of Trustees Room is funded by Grant A. Tinker,” former head of NBC and MTM Enterprises. And “the lobby is named in memory of Danny Thomas.”

Also on hand for the unveiling was the mayor of Beverly Hills, Vicki Reynolds, who said the new facility, first announced in February, was “an appropriate and prestigious” partnership between the city and the museum.

Batscha said that the museum site, at 469 N. Beverly Drive, and leased from the Bank of America, would be the setting for “exhibitions, screening and listening series (and) seminars.” He added that bi-coastal events transmitted between the two museum buildings would take place.

“This makes the museum a truly national museum,” he said.

The museum’s collection for public viewing and listening includes more than 60,000 TV and radio shows and commercials. Construction on the Beverly Hills facility, which includes a 150-seat theater, radio studio and listening room, library and console room, begins in January.

Batscha said, meanwhile, that this year’s TV festival, scheduled for March, will be held at the Directors Guild on Sunset Boulevard, ending a lengthy association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.