I hope you are doing well.

It's been a long time coming, and finally, it's here: the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

At a press conference on Wednesday, visitors walked the site, entering from Wilshire Boulevard and taking a path that leads around and under the building, opening up to...  BAM! — a simply wonderful view of the Bruce Goff-designed Pavilion for Japanese Art.

Viistors gather under the building, with the Japanese Pavilion in view. Photo by Frances Anderton

This is one of the many magical moments in the new building that some adore, others dislike, and some of us feel, well, a bit of both, starting with a basic premise...

The executive director, Michael Govan, reminded the crowd that the goal was always to create a place in which both the art and the architecture were stripped of hierarchies, with no obvious front and back, and no structuring of the collections according to outmoded chronologies and colonial histories. A place to let go of old expectations and wander through a park, or what architect Peter Zumthor analogized to a forest. Finally, it is a place in which, said Govan, "seeing Los Angeles is key."

Artworks are displayed in the open circulation space. Photo by Frances Anderton.

They've accomplished all of that, and Govan's unwavering commitment to this concept and realization of it is remarkable. Marvelous, the fresh views of Miracle Mile as one wanders the elevated building. Lovely to perambulate the axis-free space and bump into Baroque sculptures, Francis Bacon paintings, and a contemporary installation by South Korean artist Do Ho Suh, all displayed on walls and stands in the sunlit circulation areas. It's especially lovely to dip into the discreet galleries, stained burgundy-black, russety red, and deep blue, at Zumthor's direction, where the artworks really sing, evidenced in the Geoffrey H. Palmer room below. (Palmer, the developer of Italianate housing, is a trustee of the museum).

The discreet galleries are a richly colored delight. Photo by Frances Anderton

But there is a fine line between wandering and getting lost — seeing the trees but not the whole forest. Lost in the "radical" new categorization of the art — by oceans? Literally lost, as in, finding it hard to get out of the building, feeling trapped behind the glass walls with no openings save for the two main entry ways. Lost in all the concrete. There is so much of it, in a shade of gray that somewhat drowns out and homogenizes the artworks. It continues at ground level in Feathered Changes, a huge composition by artist Mariana Castillo Deballa made of "undulating paths of warm concrete that mimic lines raked into sand," between the galleries and the Japanese Pavilion, below. It is so subtle that on first sighting, it reads as a turning circle for cars. 

Feathered Changes, artist Mariana Castillo Deballa, is on the ground at LACMA. Photo by Frances Anderton.

All these feelings, however, are countered by awe at the accomplishment. This marks an exciting moment for the Los Angeles civic realm. The opening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, after many long years, will be followed next month by the opening of LA Metro's D Line (Purple) Extension, and, soon, the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park. Angelenos and all the visitors heading here for the World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games will get a fresh take on the City of Angels.

Peter Zumthor, speaking at the press conference for the opening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA

Member Previews of the LACMA galleries take place April 19th–May 3rd. Click here for details.

Design Things To Do

Top Pick: Frames for The Future

The above-mentioned cultural gifts to the city arrive as many people struggle with daily living, like rebuilding after the fires or keeping up with high rents. It seems like it's easier to be visionary in LA within the boardrooms of art museums than in building homes.

And that's not due to a shortage of ideas. As Sam Lubell lays out in this NYT story, designers have stepped forward with imaginative concepts for resilient replacement homes in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, like the hybrid Seaview Homes, a mix of custom and tract designs for a collective of homeowners in the Palisades, designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects and Comstock Homes. The first breaks ground next week, at a public event on Tuesday, April 21st, 10:00–11:00 AM, at 18330 Clifftop Way, Sunset Mesa, Malibu. Click here to RSVP.

Rendering of a modern house type for Sunset Mesa, Seaview Homes (Clive Wilkinson Architects/Comstock Homes)

Meanwhile, Friends of Residential Treasures Los Angeles (FORT: LA), in collaboration with several LA nonprofit partners, launched a competition, Frame The Future, inviting people to create “powerful visual and verbal messaging to boldly make the case for a new residential dream for the Southland.”

More than 60 people submitted concepts, and on April 29th, FORT will host a ticketed event at The Ebell of Los Angeles. Come see the entries, celebrate the winners, and hear about the themes that emerged. As a member of the jury, I can attest that the competition elicited some very creative and critical ideas.

Quick Picks

When a beloved teacher is killed in a hit-and-run, a grassroots movement emerges to transform a four-lane boulevard in Brooklyn into a safer street with bike lanes. The ensuing struggle over control of the streets is the subject of Changing Lanes, a documentary by Ben Wolf, featuring musician-cyclist David Byrne and planner Janette Sadik-Khan, that opens this week in LA at Laemmle's theaters. Wolf will appear at post-screening Q&A's on Thursday, April 16th (Royal), Saturday, April 18th (Glendale), and Monday, April 20th (Monica).

The LA Times bumper book fair is back on April 18th and 19th for its annual spring weekend fest at USC. Fans of books about LA architecture and lore should drop by Angel City Press booth 119, where I'll be on Sunday, from 2:00–4:00 PM, along with Romeo Guzmán, co-editor of Boom California, and artist Karla Klarin, painter of the Valley in postwar years. In the 12:00–2:00 PM slot, guest authors include Tales from The Strip photographer Robert Landau, below.

Meet the photographer, Robert Landau, at the LAT Book Fair. Image courtesy Angel City Press.

Marta in Silver Lake opens another of its lovely functional art displays this Saturday, April 18th, 5:00–8:00 PM. Of Two Minds showcases new work by the Pasadena-based artist and designer Ryan Belli. His output includes lampshades, above, in which "lengths of ribbon are sewn into peaked light shades that translate traditional bricklayers’ patterns into Albers-esque constructions." 

Ryan Belli's lampshades. Courtesy Marta

Speaking of the Albers, I am very much looking forward to seeing Josef Albers: Duets, the newly opened exhibition of works by the famed color theorist, "in which two related forms are played against one another." It is at David Zwirner gallery through May 22nd. Through their teaching at Black Mountain College and Yale, Albers and his wife, Anni, the textile artist, helped shape American Modern design.

Josef Albers, Study for a Homage to the Square, c. 1970-1973, and Study for a Homage to the Square, c. 1970-1973

The L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design invites you to participate in Love, L.A. — A Postcard Project. In readiness for all the visitors coming to L.A., they are creating a series of 20 selected “tourist” postcards that "look beyond the city’s familiar landmarks to the Los Angeles you love: unexpected, counterintuitive, lesser-known, local, small, everyday, weird, unvarnished, delightfully strange, lovable, beautiful." The deadline is April 20th. Submit your pics here.

For those interested in architectural "pedagogy," UCLA Architecture and Urban Design school marks its 60th birthday with a two-day symposium on Transitioning Worlds and how designers and those that educate them respond "as climate, technology, governance, and urban life undergo fundamental transformation." Speakers at this free, public event taking place on April 20th and 21st include Elena Manferdini, Dr. Dana Cuff, Annie Chu, Neil Denari, and Kevin Daly. I'm one of the moderators.

On Saturday, April 25th, the Wende Museum opens Mobile Churches, a show of images by Anton Roland Laub of the seven churches that were moved to survive the destruction of Bucharest's historic center by the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, to make way for his megalomaniac “People’s House” and wide streets for official parades. Beware of autocrats who want to rebuild capitals in their own image!

What I'm Digging

Watching... The Count of Monte Cristo. Revenge drives POTUS, but no one wrought vengeance with more creativity (and justification?) than Alexandre Dumas' wronged, idealistic young sailor Edmond Dantès. There are two new takes on the immortal fable, and hubby and I stumbled on the French film, which is extremely dramatic and stylish. Now we plan on diving into the longer PBS series.

Laughing... still, at SNL's recent skit starring host Colman Domingo, below, about a group of FIDM New York students who are asked for help describing a bank robber, and can only riff on his "Boho Derogatory" dress sense.  

Reading... about the my-pet-is-smarter-than-yours syndrome and why life is good with a "dumb dog." Needless to say, cats are smarter. Especially mine.

Fashion students are no help ID-ing a perp in SNL with Colman Domingo. Still from YouTube.

What I'm NOT Digging

The Disappearance of Basic Everything

Americans of all income levels could once find an affordable "econobox," or basic car, to manage their daily lives, per this report. No longer, as I can attest to when we had to replace our car recently. Today's computers on wheels cost prohibitively high amounts, and then some in repairs. Ditto for computers. Then there are houses, which have escalated in size and cost since the 1950s average of 1000 square feet for a "basic" home (versus 2500 square feet today). No wonder affordability is the driving issue right now.

Well, that's it for this week's newsletter. Please send your design news, questions, and comments to francesanderton@gmail.com. Get back issues here. And remind your friends to sign up for the newsletter here.

Yours with very best wishes,

Frances