LENA BUCK The UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, located on
Wilshire Boulevard, is scheduled to be renovated at a cost of $25
million starting in the year 2002.
By Rebekah Lynn
Daily Bruin Contributor
The UCLA Armand Hammer Museum Board of Trustees unanimously
approved a $25 million remodeling project, which will significantly
change the look of the building ““ inside and out.
Scheduled to begin in 2002, the renovations are expected to take
one year, during which time the museum will be closed, officials
said.
Renovations will be undertaken by a team consisting of Michael
Maltzan, a Los Angeles architect, Bruce Mau, a Toronto-based
graphic designer, and Petra Blaisse, an Amsterdam-based landscape
and interior designer.
Chief architect Michael Maltzan recently received the 1999 Young
Architect Award from the American Institute of Architecture, and a
2000 Progressive Architecture Award. Maltzan is an active member of
Inner City Arts, a Los Angeles non-profit dedicated to bringing the
arts to at-risk children. He has also worked with The Getty.
The goals of the remodeling project are to create an identity
for the museum within the community, heighten visibility and to
strengthen the organizational flow of art within the museum. The
vision is a museum that is more visible and easier for patrons to
use, and that has stronger ties to the community, officials
said.
According to a Feb. 15 L.A. Times article, the plans will
increase gallery space by approximately 25-50 percent, move the
main entrance to Lindbrook Avenue, add a restaurant, and complete a
288-seat theater.
The theater is expected to be used to strengthen community ties
through activities such as poetry readings and concerts, and will
house the UCLA Film and Television Archives.
The UCLA Film and Television Archives are presently housed in
Melnitz Hall. The UCLA Film and Television Archives not only
preserve, restore and catalogue film, but also offer a public
exhibition of cutting edge contemporary and international
films.
Kelly Graml, public affairs and marketing director of the Film
and Television Archives, said the move to the Hammer Museum offers
the advantages of being in a cultural center. It will also provide
the opportunity to display artifacts that travel with certain
programs.
“The programming mandate will be the same. We will be
showing great work from around the world and taking chances,”
Graml said.
The archives will not be closed at any time during
renovations.
“We do not anticipate any interruption in
programming,” says Graml.
The theater addition is the realization of an original goal of
the museum. Plans were made for the theater to be built in 1990,
but were abandoned when expenditures were capped at $90 million,
according to the L.A. Times article.
Half of the $25 million will be raised before the project
begins, said Terry Morello, director of external affairs at the
Hammer. The rest will be financed by a bank loan, to be repaid by
additional fund-raising.
The official unveiling of the designs for the renovations is
scheduled for late April.
Sketches of the proposed design are posted on the architecture
Web site: www.Arcspace.com/architects/maltzan/hammer/index.html.