Home > News > Hammer Museum Unveils New Design Featuring Expanded Galleries, A New Theater and Enhanced Courtyard That Will Strengthen Connection with the Community, Westwood and UCLA

Hammer Museum Unveils New Design Featuring Expanded Galleries, A New Theater and Enhanced Courtyard That Will Strengthen Connection with the Community, Westwood and UCLA

Heidi Zeller (hzeller@arts.ucla.edu) (310) 443-7049
For Immediate Use Tuesday, May 15, 2001.

Contact:
Cynthia Wornham (310) 479-9929
Ruder Finn Arts and Communications Counselors
May 15, 2001
Revised Oct. 10, 2001

International Design Team of Los Angeles-based Architect Michael Maltzan, Graphic Designer Bruce Mau and Landscape and Interior Designer Petra Blaisse to Collaborate in Innovative Approach to Museum Design

Leadership Gift from Eileen Harris Norton and Peter Norton Family Foundation for New Contemporary Art Gallery to Launch $25 Million Capital Campaign to Fund Project

The Hammer Museum today unveiled a model and detailed plans for a major redesign of the existing building in Westwood. The result of an innovative, collaborative approach to museum design that marries architecture with graphic, landscape and lighting design, the plans propose a more inviting and functional center for exhibitions, public programs, films and special events. The planned enhancements realize Dr. Armand Hammer’s original vision for the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center as a multi-disciplinary institution. The $25 million construction project is scheduled to begin in fall 2002 and to be completed in fall 2003.

“The UCLA Hammer Museum Building Project will greatly enhance the Museum, which already is a jewel in UCLA’s crown,” said Chancellor Albert Carnesale.

“As the gateway to Westwood and the UCLA campus, the Hammer Museum is key to the University’s role in the cultural landscape of Los Angeles,” commented Daniel Neuman, Dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture. “The Hammer’s redesign and completion of its state-of-the-art theater will provide our students, and the UCLA and Los Angeles communities with a valuable resource for exhibitions and intellectual discourse.”

The Museum project is designed by the team of Los Angeles-based architect Michael Maltzan, Toronto-based graphic designer Bruce Mau and Amsterdam-based landscape and interior designer Petra Blaisse. Through this collaboration, all the components of the project will be closely integrated architecturally and graphically to create an elegant, vibrant and engaging cultural center at Wilshire and Westwood boulevards, one of Los Angeles’ most active intersections.

“This renovation project is a big step towards realizing the tremendous potential of the Hammer to become a thriving cultural destination in the city,” said Ann Philbin, Director of the Hammer Museum, at a luncheon held to unveil the design. “This world-class design team under Michael Maltzan’s leadership has created a more welcoming environment that will be much less fragmented and more navigable. The design creates linkages between the diverse programs at the Hammer which range from our permanent collections and historical presentations to contemporary art, exhibitions, poetry, music, film and performance.”

Project Highlights

Highlights of the project include: new and expanded galleries to display the Museum’s permanent collections and changing exhibitions, with a 1,500-square-foot space devoted to contemporary art and additional galleries for works on paper; a 288-seat theater to be the home of the UCLA Film and Television Archive; a new hall and multi-purpose space for public programs and educational activities; a restaurant in the re-landscaped courtyard, and the relocation of the Museum’s renowned bookstore to the courtyard level. The proposed design also reorients the Museum’s entrance to Lindbrook Drive facing Westwood Village and UCLA.

Architect Michael Maltzan commented, “At the Hammer we are creating a design that provides an exciting and flexible ‘armature’ which will support the incredible breadth of programming developing at the Museum. The ultimate goal of the design is to draw in the visitor and create a sense of connection between the various art exhibitions and programs – combined with a dramatic gathering place in the courtyard accentuated by the use of strong graphics, natural materials, light and design elements created by Bruce Mau and Petra Blaisse. The end result should be a cultural hub unlike any other in the city.”

$2 Million Gift to Create Eileen Harris Norton Family Gallery

A leadership gift of $2 million from the Peter Norton Family Foundation and Eileen Harris Norton for the naming of a new contemporary art gallery was announced at the unveiling event by Neuman. “This leadership gift marks a truly historic moment for the Hammer,” commented Neuman. “The Norton family’s generosity within the art community as a funder and a collector is widely known, so Eileen’s support for the Hammer’s plans to become a vibrant cultural center and expand the presentation of contemporary art is a tremendous vote of confidence for the Museum.”

In making the gift to the Hammer to name the Eileen Harris Norton Family Gallery, Norton said, “This is an exciting moment in the life of the Hammer and I am happy to be able to be a part of it. I have great admiration for both Annie Philbin and new chief curator Russell Ferguson and am very supportive of the Hammer’s growing commitment to contemporary art through its Hammer Projects and special exhibitions. As a graduate of UCLA, it gives me particular pleasure to lend my name to a gallery that will provide a new venue for contemporary artists to share their work with the Los Angeles community and visitors from around the world.”

The $25 million project will be funded through a multi-year capital campaign to be unveiled in more detail in the coming months and will be determined and approved by the governing bodies of the Museum prior to the commencement of the project.

Architectural Features: Expanded Galleries and Dramatic Courtyard

A key feature of the new design is the addition of a bridge that will link newly enclosed promenade galleries on the second floor, creating a connection between the permanent collections of the Museum and the changing historical and contemporary exhibitions. The bridge and a repositioned grand staircase will direct visitors entering the courtyard to the exhibition galleries and public halls. With the addition of four new galleries, the Museum’s total exhibition space will increase by 25%. This includes the addition of a 1,500-square-foot-space devoted to the Eileen Harris Norton Family Gallery of contemporary art and two new galleries for the exhibition of works on paper. The improved permanent collection galleries will enhance the presentation of works from the Armand Hammer Collection of Old Master, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, the Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection and the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts.

One of the centerpieces of this project is the completion of a 288-seat state-of-the-art theater. Currently a concrete shell, the auditorium was planned as part of the original building by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, but was never completed. The theater will be jointly programmed with the UCLA Film and Television Archive presenting film and the Hammer presenting poetry readings, lectures, concerts and conferences. To serve the Archive’s wide range of programs, the Hammer theater will feature digital technology and a full range of screening capabilities. It will create synergies among the multiple-media arts, as Museum-goers are introduced to the Archive’s distinguished film and television festivals and presentations, and Archive audiences become acquainted with the Hammer’s exhibitions, collections and public programs.

Other significant changes are planned for the courtyard, as the Hammer Bookstore, one of the city’s finest collections of books on art, architecture and design, will move to a space adjacent to the theater. In addition, an elegant 100-seat indoor/outdoor restaurant and café facility will also be situated in the courtyard, enhancing the pleasure of Museum visitors and serving as a meeting place for local residents and out-of-town visitors alike.

Design Team

Michael Maltzan, the recipient of several architectural honors, is currently working on a number of projects, including MoMA QNS in Long Island City, Queens, and the new Kidspace Museum in Pasadena. Bruce Mau is an internationally recognized graphic designer known for his innovation in branding and identity. He is currently designing the signage and environmental graphics with architects Rem Koolhaas on the Seattle Public Library and Frank Gehry on Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Mau has also been working with the Hammer over the past year on a graphic identity program. Petra Blaisse, through her firm INSIDE OUTSIDE, specializes in the rare combination of landscape design of both interior and exterior spaces and is currently collaborating with Rem Koolhaas on the Seattle Public Library and Prada stores in New York City and Los Angeles.

The Museum

The Museum explores the capacity of art to enhance the full range of human experience. Through its permanent collections, exhibitions and programs, the Hammer Museum endeavors to illuminate the depth and diversity of artistic expression through the centuries up to the present moment. At the core of the museum’s mission is the recognition that artists play a crucial role in all aspects of culture and society. As a cultural center, the Museum seeks to advance the University’s mission by contributing to the intellectual life of the campus and the community at large.

Founded by Dr. Armand Hammer in 1990, the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center was built to house his art collections as well as include a study center, library, bookstore, administrative offices and a landscaped courtyard, with plans for an auditorium and restaurant. The Museum was financed by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation, of which Dr. Hammer was the chairman, and built adjacent to the Corporation’s international headquarters in Westwood. In April 1994, UCLA, through its School of the Arts and Architecture, assumed management and operation of the Museum and its collections, and staff of the Wight Art Gallery and the Grunwald Center relocated from the University to the Armand Hammer Museum.

The Museum houses several collections of art including: The Armand Hammer Collection of Old Master, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including important examples of work by Rembrandt van Rijn, John Singer Sargent, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt; The Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection featuring the painting, sculpture and lithography of 19th-century French satirist Honoré Daumier and his contemporaries; The Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts containing over 40,000 works on paper, including prints, drawings, photographs and artists’ books dating from the Renaissance to the present, representing a diverse selection of artists. The Museum also manages the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden, one of the most distinguished outdoor sculpture collections in the country, spanning more than five acres on the northern end of UCLA’s campus.

In addition to selections from its permanent collections, Hammer exhibitions present historical and contemporary work in all media of the visual arts, including architecture and design. Past exhibitions include Making Time: Considering Time as a Material in Contemporary Video and Film; The Un-Private House, an exhibition of 28 recently designed homes; Drawn from Artists’ Collections, a selection of drawings from the collections of sixteen contemporary artists; Lee Mullican: Selected Drawings 1945-1980; Likeness: Recent Portrait Drawings by David Hockney; The Prinzhorn Collection: Traces upon the Wunderblock, the first American exhibition of a legendary and influential group of works amassed in the early 1900s by psychiatrist and art historian Hans Prinzhorn; Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785-1925, the first major exhibition to explore the visual arts in Persia during the Qajar Dynasty; Sunshine and Noir: Art in L.A. 1960-1997, an examination of four decades of groundbreaking Los Angeles art from a European perspective; and The French Renaissance in Prints from the Bibliothèque Nationale, co-organized by the Grunwald Center and the National Library of France. In June 2001, the Hammer will present Snapshot: New Art from Los Angeles, a survey of work by 25 emerging L.A. artists.

Hammer Projects, a new series of exhibitions focusing on the work of emerging artists, reflect the Museum’s commitment to serving artists by providing a responsive, flexible arena for presenting their work to the Los Angeles community. Hammer Projects provide international and local artists with a laboratory-like environment to create new work, or present existing work to a new audience. Projects are presented in several locations in the Museum, and feature a large-scale wall drawing series in the Wilshire lobby. Recent artists featured include Francesca Gabbiani, James Gobel, Simon Henwood, Arturo Herrera, Cheonae Kim, Siobhan Liddell, Barry McGee, Pentti Monkkonen Paul Morrison, Tania Mouraud and Kara Walker. Artists currently showing Projects are Chris Johanson, Emma Kay and Jesse Bransford.

The Hammer is a forum for the exploration of cultural, political and social issues. Recent public programs include “Architecture L.A. at the Hammer,” a series featuring over 50 architects, historians and developers; Dialogues on Art with participants including Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Dave Hickey, Catherine Opie, Lari Pittman, Hillel Schwartz and Peter Wollen; and the Hammer Readings series organized by the UCLA Department of English and co-sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, which has featured Robert Pinsky, Eavan Boland and J.D. McClatchey, among others.

UCLA Film and Television Archive

Founded in 1967, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is internationally recognized as a major center in the U.S. that exhibits, preserves and promotes the study of moving image art. The Archive’s collection of moving image materials is one of the most comprehensive in the United States, second only to the Library of Congress, and is the largest university-based collection in the world.

In the grand tradition of the National Film Theatre in London, the Cinematheque Francaise in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is the largest non-profit site for repertory exhibition in Southern California, renowned for an eclectic program mix of over 400 films/videos a year.

Contact: Heidi Zeller
Phone: (310) 443-7049
Email: hzeller@arts.ucla.edu