Ann Philbin’s Subtle Touch
This spring, L.A.’s Hammer Museum is celebrating the completion of careful renovations. The director’s own home in Beverly Hills underwent a similarly meticulous process.
Like artful plastic surgery, a good renovation rejuvenates without calling attention to itself. The subtle 20-plus-year transformation of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, which Ann Philbin has overseen since becoming its director in 1999, culminates on March 26. It began with urgent remediation—“I literally had holes in the ground,” she told me—and progressed to a full-scale, $90 million revamping. But most of the changes are discreet, designed to enhance the visitor’s experience and increase the museum’s visibility without radically altering the building.
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the W Magazine website.
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