Archinect - News

Michael Maltzan's finally complete Hammer Museum transformation sets an opening date

2023-03-14T11:24:00-04:00

Michael Maltzan's long-awaited overhaul of the UCLA Hammer Museum has set a date for its public debut after more than two decades of work undertaken at the behest of director Ann Philbin.

March 26th will mark the completed transformation of the 33-year-old Westside institution, with a new facade, lobby, and entrance from Wilshire Boulevard welcoming visitors into its enhanced spaces while acting like a gateway to Westwood Village and the university campus beyond.

Maltzan said: “We had a clear vision of what the Hammer should become, from the moment we began designing the master plan for what was then a cloistered, private museum of historic European painting. That clarity sustained us through a process that demanded extraordinary persistence and inventiveness, because we needed to work in phases as we reshaped, reconfigured, opened, and expanded the Hammer. This was truly a case of building the airplane while you were flying it. I can’t think of any other client that would have had...

Stephen Garrett, curator who inaugurated Getty and Hammer museums, has died

2019-12-09T13:22:00-05:00

Garrett was born in Ashtead, England, in 1922. He studied architecture at Trinity College, although his academic pursuits were disrupted by the Second World War, in which he fought for the British Royal Navy. After the war, he completed his studies at Cambridge before opening a private architectural practice in London, where he was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Over a long and lustrous career, Stephen Garrett, played many roles and helped shape a series of architectural contributions in the museum sphere, including lending his expertise as a consulting architect for the Getty Villa project in Malibu, California. He ended up becoming the Getty's first director following J. Paul Getty's death in 1976, and was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the museum's second location in Brentwood. Garrett also led the Long Beach Art Museum and Hammer Museum, among other efforts.

Garrett passed away at age 96 on December 2, 2019.

Hammer Museum releases new renderings by Michael Maltzan for multi-year expansion

2018-02-23T19:45:00-05:00

The Hammer Museum, housing Los Angeles' 3rd largest collection of artistic innovation, has announced a public launch of a $180 million capital campaign in their multiyear expansion plan. A masterplan to improve every facet of the museum has been underway since 2000 lead by Michael Maltzan. Renovations began last summer with preliminary renderings of his designs for transforming the space.

Elevated bookstore rendering. Image: Michael Maltzan Architecture.

With a $30 million lead gift from L.A. philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick (the largest in the museum's history), the facade design will now reflect the building's name dedicated to the Resnicks. Additional renderings have also been released along with a timeline of phases to be completed in 2020.

New contemporary gallery interior rendering. Image: Michael Maltzan Architecture.

Construction began in 2017 on renovating the third-floor exhibition spaces, now featuring a 10,000-square-foot contiguous gallery that accommodates ma...

Michael Maltzan's renderings of the expanded Hammer Museum reveal cautious, yet possibly ebullient design

2017-01-26T14:42:00-05:00

After transforming from a cramped adjunct space to a fully fledged L.A. cultural hotspot in just a few decades, the Hammer Museum is expanding again thanks to Michael Maltzan, who has been gradually increasing and renovating the Hammer over the years via The Billy Wilder Theatre, the expanded public courtyard (featuring Heatherwick Studio's ever delightful spool chairs), and the John V. Tunney Bridge. Based on his past work for the museum, he's able to create aesthetically powerful spaces in fairly constrained circumstances. The new renderings, while not mind-blowing in of themselves, promise a continuance of his detailed, culturally attuned work.

Perhaps the most exciting element of the new design is the pronounced pedestrian entrance on Wilshire Boulevard. Currently, museum goers often enter through the frankly unimpressive subterranean parking garage, or the staircase-heavy entrances on Lindbrook or Wilshire. This nod toward greater accessibility will hopefully not only perk up th...

Thirst-quenching as Los Angeles heats up: Next Wave @ UCLA

2015-12-08T19:18:00-05:00

Last week, UCLA’s Hammer Museum hosted the final iteration of its 2015 program "Next Wave: Quality, Quantity, and Accessibility of Water in the 21st Century," a robust discussion series that has gathered experts in various fields to explicate and consider the most pressing issues surrounding water in the 21st century. This final event, subtitled "Thriving in a Hotter Los Angeles," grappled with issues closest to home, largely under the purview of the goals articulated by the ambitious "Sustainable LA Grand Challenge," a UCLA initiative dedicated to achieving water and energy sustainability in the county by 2020.

Claudia Bestor, the director of public programs at the Hammer, began the evening by introducing the speakers: Mark Gold, Associate Vice Chancellor for Environment and Sustainability (among other titles) at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA; Alex Hall, the faculty director at the UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions; Eric Hoek, the founder and CEO o...

Problem-solving with Thomas Heatherwick on Archinect Sessions #29

2015-05-15T10:15:00-04:00

Prior to his artist talk at the Hammer Museum last week, nearing the culmination of his massively successful "Provocations" show, Thomas Heatherwick spoke with Paul and Amelia about his firm's personality and design approach. We discuss his interview on this week's single-focus episode, touching on his diverse project list, his "doubting Thomas" identity, and his attitudes towards "franchised" architecture.

If you're in Los Angeles, "Provocations" will be at the Hammer Museum through May 24. To hear more about the exhibition, listen to our conversation with curator Brooke Hodge, featured on "Three Funerals and a Curator".

Listen to episode twenty-nine of Archinect Sessions, "A talk with Thomas Heatherwick"

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LA Forum talks with Brooke Hodge, curator of "Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio"

2015-03-11T14:54:00-04:00

"From the beginning, I wanted to give a sense of the variety of scale of the studio’s projects, from the more intimate objects like the Christmas cards to large-scale mockups like those for the Paternoster Square vents. [...] Thomas is trained as a designer and not as an architect and he has always made things as a way to test his ideas. He often mentions how unusual it is that most architects have never actually made anything themselves." – Brooke Hodge

When news broke that Heatherwick Studio would be collaborating with BIG on Google's campus expansion, many were hearing Thomas Heatherwick's name for the first time. "Provocations", the first exhibition devoted to Heatherwick Studios to be shown in North America, will make sure that Heatherwick becomes a name in the states not just for the Google project, but for a significant catalogue of distinct work. Brooke Hodge, the curator of "Provocations", recognized Heatherwick's unique status in architecture and design long before Google's announcement, and now the timing couldn't be better to get to know Heatherwick.

Currently the Deputy Director at the Cooper Hewitt's National Design Museum, Hodge casts Heatherwick not as architect or designer per se, but as an inventor – the tinkerer who sets out to solve problems, not develop a style. The LA Forum interview posted here is a quick overview of Hodge's organizational strategy for the exhibition.

"Provocations" is currently on display at ...

Heatherwick Studio showcases their multi-disciplinary design skills in the "Provocations" exhibition

2014-12-17T15:43:00-05:00

The Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio exhibition presents the design concepts behind the span of projects that British designer Thomas Heatherwick and his London-based studio have created worldwide. Currently at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas until January 4, Provocations will make its West Coast debut at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on February 20.

Presented as a "jack of all trades" and organized by Hammer Museum curator Aram Moshayed, the upcoming L.A. exhibition will feature prototypes, photos, video footage, films, objects, and large-scale models.

The exhibition will include product designs like the "Spun" chair and the Longchamps Zip Bag as well as more recognizable icons like the Olympic Cauldron and the redesigned double decker buses from the London 2012 Olympic Games.

"Provocations" will also highlight Heatherwick's large-scale projects like the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, the Nanyang Technological University Learning ...

Gehry and Salonen discuss ten years of music at Disney Concert Hall

2013-10-16T16:15:00-04:00

To celebrate Disney Hall’s tenth anniversary, architect Frank Gehry and Conductor Laureate for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Esa-Pekka Salonen reminisced on the building’s inspiration last night, at a discussion held at the Hammer Museum. Co-hosted by the LA Phil, far from the actual concert hall and its spotty downtown L.A. environs, the discussion’s moderator Nicolai Ouroussoff (former architecture critic for the New York Times) tried to tease out the relationship between architecture and music. While Salonen touched upon questions of classical music’s relevance, Gehry didn’t delve too deeply into the particulars of his design.

As Music Director for the LA Philharmonic from 1992-2009, Salonen oversaw the orchestra during its transition from the slightly-stuffy Dorothy Chandler Pavilion over to Disney Hall, and is highly regarded for whipping the Philharmonic into shape as a progressive and formidable cultural institution. The trajectory of the LA Phil is largely wrapped up in b...

A. Quincy Jones' LA retrospective at the Hammer Museum

2013-08-16T19:41:00-04:00

"A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living" is the LA-based architect's first major museum retrospective happening now until Sept. 8 at the Hammer Museum.

Practicing architecture in Los Angeles from 1939 to his death in 1979, Jones -- or Quincy, as he was known -- is described as a quiet modernist who constantly emphasized the concept of "better living" and collaboration in his work. In addition to Jones' more glamorous projects for higher-status clients like actor Gary Cooper and art collectors Frances and Sidney Brody, Jones also made major contributions to middle-class housing in the post-war period.

A dedicated architecture professor at USC, Jones was just as committed to raising the housing design standards for a growing middle class by implementing cost-effective, sustainable, and inventive methods. He was also the first to see such developments as communal spaces through shared green spaces, non-grid site planning, and various home models.

Jones is credited to ove...

Housing Values: The "Dream House Resource Center" exhibit

2013-08-15T19:37:00-04:00

As for what she wants visitors to get out of the exhibit, Koumoundouros just hopes it will help them think about -- even question -- how much our economy is based on the housing market. 'Ownership and consumption are linked to how much our economy is consumed based," she argues. "[This view of housing] is so specifically American. And I love digging that out, and I think questioning it is part of maybe a shift.'

The phrase "a place to call home" rings loud and clear in the "Dream House Resource Center" exhibit by artist Olga Koumoundouros currently at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles until August 18. Her exhibit focuses on the commodification of the home in America through the context of America's struggling housing industry and its widespread consequences. The idea came from Koumoundouros' own housing hardships, when her partner was laid off from his architecture job right after they purchased a house in the same week.

Visitors are welcomed in by the giant colorful McMansion doors that Koumoundouros refurbished surrounded by transparent walls. A white board on one side displays the latest headlines and stats in housing. A rainbow-colored timeline of 20th-century American housing on the walls wraps around the exhibit, each strand of the rainbow explaining the different factors leading up to the current state of the U.S. housing industry -- from the idealistic outlook of achieving The...