During a recent Zoom interview from his studio in Switzerland, Peter Zumthor offered a candid look at the making of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries.
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect addressed long-standing criticisms of the building and answered questions about his craft. He noted that the structure is a rejection of the overly “slick” architecture he believes defines the present moment, and shed light on the building’s early development, describing a contained process in which the concept was shaped before being presented to the public.
Finally, he discussed the broader ambition of the endeavor: dissolving traditional circulation and prioritizing emotional experience over institutional order.
The following interview excerpts have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
You are well–known as both an architect and a craftsman. I think the biggest place for that focus was the concrete. I’m curious about how you formed it. It’s not the typical museum concrete.
I work like an artist in building. This means I custom-make buildings. I can use a few standard details or products, like in the basement. But where the building has an identity, becomes visible, it’s almost all handmade. I have an image of what I want to do, what the building should do, how it should look. So I need people who can help me make custom-made products.
The people who did the formwork — the concrete pouring — [worked in] groups of 100 or more. They were fantastic. They loved their work. At the beginning, formwork leaked on a door, and it looked terrible. They said, “Peter, we’re sorry. We made a mistake. We can fix this. You will not see this afterwards.” But if you make a mistake, you cannot mend it, because what you’re doing here is a concrete sculpture. Sculptures are never mended.
It’s not a perfectly smooth concrete. I’m assuming that’s on purpose?
I love this kind of rawness. This was what I gladly learned. Michael [Govan] in a very friendly, careful way let me know that he would like more “American details” and fewer “European details.” OK, my European details, they stand. That’s what I did 20, 30 years ago. My background as a furniture maker shows, and I can do this. But the challenge in this museum is to get the right “American” roughness. And I think I pretty much succeeded.
What I learned in California [came] back to Europe, and many times we now say in the office, “Let’s do this more L.A.-style.” Because we have too many slick magazines in the world. We have this corporate architecture which doesn’t want to see any touch of a hand. No mistakes. What we need is not refinement. We need wholehearted directness. This is what I take back from America. There’s a certain freshness. It’s not overly refined. I’m proud of that. The roughness has to do with our times. Because our time is slick and glossy, right? The time to make refined, slick architecture is over.
Horizontal light enters from floor-to-ceiling windows around the perimeter of LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, which use concrete as a kind of living building material.
(Iwan Baan)
In a 2023 interview with [architecture critic] Christopher Hawthorne, you said there were no “Zumthor details” left in the building. Do you think there are any Zumthor details now?
Of course there are Zumthor details. And I love them. They are not Swiss details. I think Christopher got this wrong. I was actually proudly speaking of how I learned a new way of looking at details. It doesn’t have to be refined all the time.
[Editor’s note: Zumthor told Hawthorne verbatim, “There are no Zumthor details any more,” in the 2023 interview with the New York Times.]
There’s always a tension with every building when it comes to value engineering. Were there any other places where you would want [David Geffen Galleries] to be different?
Basically, I say no. I’m very proud of this building. This is what I wanted to do, and this is what Michael helped me to do. This is exactly it. It’s one of my children and I love it.
Do you see this approach as an evolution in your work? Or is it more specifically for L.A.?
L.A. has changed me. And it’s in a good way. I would [not] have changed and reacted to our slick times the same way without L.A.
There were complaints that the project, and the process, were not as public as some people thought they should be. What is your reaction to that criticism?
I think I can say this: Michael said, “We cannot make a competition or anything like it, because competitions in the U.S. always end up with a winner who doesn’t build because he found out his own way of staging this whole procedure. The first, the most important thing, is that we start on a small budget, just the two of us.” That’s what we did. So when we started to talk about this museum, it was him and me, basically, and he gave me a little bit of money. And he said, “There will come a time when we will have to show something to the public. Let’s see whether people say yes.” They could have said no, but I think what they saw at that point was already too convincing.
Architect Peter Zumthor speaks at the press preview for the David Geffen Galleries at Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
(LACMA/ Museum Associates / Gary Leonard)
Because the museum’s not organized in a traditional way, it might be harder than normal to navigate for some people. It might be a little confusing. What do you say to that concern?
This will take some time, to see the benefits of this new type of museum. I think if you start to like this building in one corner or in another, or you get lost, you start to understand what it is all about. When something new comes, you have to learn, right? But I hope you can see this building never looks down on you. This building is, in a way, deeply human. And it lets you have your opinion.
There are people who have said, very loudly, this space shouldn’t have lost square footage. What is your response to that?
Small museums are beautiful, big museums tend to be really difficult. And the bigger the museum gets, the more difficult it is to make it easily accessible. So I’m very glad that this is not bigger. But it feels bigger.
What is this with bigness? What kind of a hang-up is this? You don’t have to be big. It has the right scale. We were often asked, “Can you experience this building and this collection in one day?” And we said, “Maybe. But maybe it will be better to come back.” Start from the other end. You have your own personal path. And then you research a little bit further. I think these are the beautiful ideas of how to experience the building. And I think it’s endless.
The interior of LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries encourages guests to wander and make their own connections rather than follow a linear path.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Can you go back to the beginning and talk about the core concept for the museum?
There are three major things that I always have to answer, whatever I do. What does the building do with the place? Does it help the place? Does it interpret the place? And then, what is the content of the building? What does the building have to do? Why are we building this?
To start out, there was a museum here which was modeled a bit after Lincoln Center. Later, it got clogged up with new buildings and you didn’t recognize the initial idea anymore. These things we took away. Whenever a building is there, whether it’s beautiful or ugly, it will always have grown into the soul of somebody. There will always be people saying, “No, no, I want to keep it.” This is part of my life. I understand this kind of thing always comes up.
The place was rather difficult because I couldn’t see any big urbanistic concept in L.A. L.A. [is] not urban in the European sense with, for instance, the market square.
There was a master plan, which was made by Renzo Piano. And this presented a long axis, and I tried to follow it. It just did not feel right. So I started to react in a more organic way, inspired by the tar pits. This whole area, which to me, is the ancient part of the site, became the starting point.
There was more: like the idea that side light is the most human light. Yeah, no skylights. And another thing was the museum had to be open to its surroundings. So contemporary L.A. should be present at all times. It should come in, whenever you can look out.
Another important thing … was to create or enlarge the public space that Michael [Govan] had started to create between his buildings. Friday evenings, Saturday, you saw so many families there. There is a desire here, a wish, for public space. This is not exactly the strength of L.A. So I think it was amazing that we were allowed to lift up the building and have the whole ground free for people.
Also, let’s do the museum on one level only. Classical museums have a main level, then they have a second level and a third level, a south wing and north wing and so on. And then, as an artist, you can have your work on the main level in the most beautiful spot. But as an artist, you can also land top left, third level near to the attic. So let’s make a building type which treats everybody equal.
LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries are hoisted above the ground on discrete piers, allowing for ample public space below.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
And then we started to think about how we wanted something open for wandering, experiencing and dreaming. This is always difficult to explain — let’s have the knowledge of art, of the history of art, coming second. It’s not because I think this is a secondary thing. It’s just because our experience should come first.
As a boy, I saw the opposite. There’s a tour and there’s a guide, and the guide starts to tell you what you should think. And I never liked this. We thought we should lay out things on a big plane where you can stroll and wander and develop your interest in art. Follow your own path.
You’re overturning a lot of unspoken rules in the art world. And I guess that’s the point in a lot of ways?
This is our point. You see other rules. For instance, if you do a new museum, the conservators say art can be exposed to less daylight. I told them as a joke, “If it goes on like this, soon the art will be in the basement, locked away.”
We have a building wide and long enough that within the building, you can find strong daylight for, let’s say, china or pottery, which love daylight. Then you can go deep into the building where it gets darker, and you can put pieces you don’t want to expose too much to the light. All without having to flip a switch.
Finding a revolutionary artist during cocktail hour at the opening gala of Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s new David Geffen Galleries was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Gaze over the rim of your glass to notice Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha talking closely beside the DJ booth. Mark Bradford strides by with a beneficent smile — towering over everyone, including AI art maker Refik Anadol. Todd Gray, whose 27-foot-long photo sculpture “Octavia’s Gaze” graces the hallway near the building’s south entrance, chats with Wim Wenders, who is making a documentary about architect Peter Zumthor’s controversial new $724 million concrete behemoth. Zumthor is there too — in bright red sneakers — talking to LACMA director and chief executive Michael Govan before Govan turns to take a selfie with immersive installation artist Do Ho Suh.
Jeff Koons, left, talks with Ed Ruscha at the opening gala for LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries on Thursday.
(Jessica Gelt / Los Angeles Times)
Lauren Halsey walks by in her distinctive white shirt, long shorts and ball cap, beset on all sides by friends and admirers.
“It’s beautiful, it’s fantastic,” she said of Zumthor’s creation.
It’s an artist’s world on this breezy evening, as the sun sets golden over the looming gray concrete of the building, and the lights that gird the structure’s underbelly flicker on and twinkle like stars overhead. In this milieu, Hollywood A-listers like Will Ferrell and Sharon Stone, who occupy separate cliques nearby, pale in comparison to the mingling artistic luminaries.
Architect Peter Zumthor, left, and Michael Govan attend LACMA’s opening gala for the David Geffen Galleries. Govan said he hopes the building lasts 500 years.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s ready for us,” Bradford said of the building. “It’s ready for artists. I walked in and I was overwhelmed with a space that was made for us, and I can’t wait for everything I can do.”
“Snazzy. Does the job,” said Ruscha, looking bemused and speaking in short bursts of headline-style phrases like one of his famous paintings.
Gray said he was glad to see his art during “magic hour,” noting how the setting sun shone warm through the building’s glass windows — diffused by textile designer Reiko Sudo’s chromium spattered curtains — to imbue his photo installation with a distinctive warmth.
“I’ve never seen it at dusk,” Gray said with a smile. “It was a totally different experience to see it at that time of day. And [the light was] actually yellow, so the piece changed … and the concrete warmed up because of that warmer light. It was a lovely chromatic experience, which is wonderful because then you’re aware that you’re experiencing something in a very particular space and time.”
James Goldstein, the owner of architect John Lautner’s famed Sheats-Goldstein Residence, which he promised as a gift to LACMA in 2016, agreed with Gray that the gloaming light was lovely.
“If it were up to me the curtains wouldn’t be closed,” Goldstein said, noting that the curtains in his home — which is also made of concrete and glass — are never closed, and that the views from the Geffen Galleries are extraordinary and worth leaning into.
Koons said the building, and the moment in time that defines its unveiling, has the potential to bring the world together.
“It’s an amazing evening for all these people that love and believe in the value of art and humanity to be together and to celebrate architecture,” said Koons, noting that he looks forward to showing his art inside the new galleries. “LACMA is a place that’s here for future generations and Peter’s building is amazing.”
Will Ferrell and Viveca Paulin were among the major Hollywood stars at the gala.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Chatter about the building could be heard in every cluster of guests. One group talked about how striking it was to see ancient Greek sculptures juxtaposed against the rush of traffic along Wilshire Boulevard; another discussed their hope for more landscaping, noting that the concrete ground and concrete building begged for some lush greenery.
Govan basked in the limelight nearby, shaking hands and doling out hugs and back pats. His vision for the building has been 20 years in the making, and he’s faced an enormous amount of pushback, but the structure is here and his enthusiasm for it has not waned.
“I’ve just always imagined people in the building — it’s for people,” Govan said. “And I want it to last 500 years, I want those little drill marks to accumulate, I want change. I want this to be something that generations will care for.”
Zumthor also seemed deeply pleased with the moment, saying, “I’ve always been happy,” and emphasized that working in L.A. taught him to embrace a certain frontier-like lack of refinement.
LACMA’s staff was elated, especially those who have been watching the project develop for decades and absorbing the large amounts of criticism that have accompanied its manifestation.
Stephanie Barron, LACMA’s senior curator and modern art department head, said, “This is the first night with our art world colleagues and donors, and it’s thrilling to see how they are responding, and how they are a little confused, at first, about where to go. Then they realize, that’s the point of this — and they are just going with the flow and they are smiling and happy and looking at the art. It’s a game changer.”
“I’ve been here nearly 20 years and seeing this going from concept to reality has been the greatest thing,” said Tiffany August, associate vice president of LACMA’s people and culture department, which oversees human resources. “So much soul and heart and effort went into this.”
Arun Mathai, budget officer and head of finance, has also been with the museum for 20 years and said it’s exciting to finally be on the other side of the project. “To see it happen in such a beautiful way is very gratifying. The notion of no hierarchy, of wandering around and seeing art from all over the world, from all time periods beautifully juxtaposed, it’s just so enlightening,” Mathai said.
Michael Govan, left, Peter Zumthor, Holly J. Mitchell and Mayor Karen Bass attend the opening gala.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Later, during a four-course meal of broiled oysters, tuna tostadas, braised Wagyu short ribs and berry meringue, various LACMA supporters, including board co-chair Tony Ressler; life trustee and major donor Lynda Resnick; and L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, whose district houses LACMA, took to the stage in a tent set up west of the new building to sing the praises of the Geffen Galleries — and to note that the evening’s dinner raised a record-setting $11.5 million. (The Geffen Galleries’ ongoing fundraising campaign now stands at $869 million.)
“This is a great, great example of what can be achieved when government and philanthropy work hand in hand for the public good,” Ressler said before thanking Govan for “taking bold risks.” “Your legacy is now permanently etched in the stunning galleries that will open to the public very soon.”
Mitchell was full of praise for Govan and Zumthor.
“The Geffen Galleries didn’t come to fruition overnight. And frankly, nothing that changes the status quo ever does,” Mitchell said. “To Michael, Peter, David [Geffen] and our dear Elaine [Wynn], thank you for your patience, because visionaries like yourselves often have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up with you.”
Resnick got a big laugh when she described her first meeting with Govan and his wife 21 years ago.
“An exquisite couple walked into [vice chair of the board] Bobby Kotick’s house. There was Michael Govan, a true intellectual, Zen thinker, movie star handsome, and under consideration to run LACMA. By the end of the evening, I was sitting on his lap feeding him peeled grapes.”
She concluded on a more serious note, calling the Geffen Galleries a “masterpiece of public art.” “Only one person in the world could have done all this with the signature elegance and his provocative style,” she said of Govan. “Generations will cross that bridge and watch the cars stream below, and feel the power of being embraced by art above all the gorgeous chaos of our city.”
After a standing ovation, Govan introduced musicians Sean Watkins, Gabe Witcher and T Bone Burnett, who sang — quite fittingly — “The Times They Are A-Changin.’”
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors made an unannounced visit this week to a construction site at Federal Reserve headquarters that is the focus of an investigation into a $2.5-billion renovation project, according to two people familiar with the visit.
Two prosecutors and an investigator from U.S. Atty. Jeanine Pirro’s office were turned away on Tuesday by a building contractor and referred to Fed attorneys, one of the people said. The two people familiar with the visit spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation.
The visit underscores that the Trump administration is not backing down from its investigation of the Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, even though the probe has delayed the confirmation of a new chair nominated by President Trump. The investigation is focused on cost overruns and brief testimony about the project last summer by Powell. Trump confirmed in an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox Business that he wants to continue the probe.
Last month, during a closed-door hearing before a federal judge, a top deputy from Pirro’s office conceded that they hadn’t found any evidence of a crime in their investigation of the headquarters project.
Robert Hur, an attorney for the Federal Reserve board of governors, sent an email to Pirro’s prosecutors about their visit and their request for a “tour” to “check on progress” at the construction site. Hur’s email, which the Associated Press has viewed, noted that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded that their interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was “pretextual.”
“Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it,” Hur wrote.
Republican Tillis is key vote
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is a key member of the Senate Banking Committee, has vowed to vote against Kevin Warsh, Trump’s nominee to replace Powell as Fed chair, until the investigation is dropped. With the committee closely divided on partisan lines, Tillis’ opposition is enough to block Warsh.
The Banking panel said Tuesday that it will hold a hearing on Warsh’s nomination April 21. Powell’s term as Fed chair ends May 15, but Powell said last month he would remain as chair until a replacement is named.
Powell is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed’s governing board that lasts until January 2028. Chairs typically leave their posts as governor when their terms as chair end, but they can remain on the board if they choose.
Last month, Powell said, “I have no intention of leaving the Board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality.” If he remains in his seat, even after Warsh is confirmed, it would deny Trump the oppotunity to fill a seat on the seven-member board.
Late Tuesday, Tillis posted a link on social media to the Wall Street Journal’s article on the visit below an image of the Three Stooges and wrote, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. at the crime scene.”
Investigation centers on building renovations
The investigation by Pirro’s office centers on an appearance by Powell before the Senate Banking Committee last June, when he was asked about cost overruns on the Fed’s extensive building renovations. The most recent estimates from the Fed suggest the current estimated cost of $2.5 billion is about $600 million higher than a 2022 estimate of $1.9 billion.
“It is probably corrupt, but what it really is, is incompetent,” Trump said on Fox Business. “Don’t you think we have to find out what happened there?”
The president’s support for the investigation threatens a time frame set out by Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who chairs the Banking Committee. Scott said Tuesday on Fox Business that he believed the investigation would be “wrapped up in the next few weeks,” allowing Warsh to be confirmed soon after.
Threat to fire Powell
News of the unannounced visit by prosecutors comes as Trump has again threatened to fire Powell, if the Federal Reserve chair decides to stay on the central bank’s governing board after his term as chair expires next month.
“Well then I’ll have to fire him, OK?” Trump said when reminded that Powell has said he won’t leave the Fed while the Justice Department investigates a $2.5-billion renovation project at the bank. Powell has also said he will remain as chair of the Fed’s rate-setting committee until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate, following the precedent of previous chairs.
Trump has for months wanted to remove Powell as chair of the Fed, saying he has been too slow in orchestrating interest rate cuts that would give the U.S. economy a quick boost. Powell has said the investigation is a pretext to undermine the Fed’s independence to set rates.
Supreme Court weighing another Trump removal
Trump’s threat to fire Powell comes as the Supreme Court is weighing the president’s effort to remove another central bank governor, Lisa Cook. Lower courts have so far allowed Cook to remain in her job while her legal challenge to the firing continues. The Supreme Court also seemed likely to keep her on the Fed when the court heard arguments in January. A decision could come any time.
The issue in Cook’s case is whether allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, is a sufficient reason to fire her or a mere pretext masking Trump’s desire to exert more control over U.S. interest rate policy.
The Supreme Court has allowed the firings of the heads of other governmental agencies at the president’s discretion, with no claim that they did anything wrong, while also signaling that it is approaching the independence of the nation’s central bank more cautiously, calling the Fed “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”
Kunzelman and Rugaber write for the Associated Press. AP Writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — The Kennedy Center’s new leadership wants to prove to critics the building is damaged beyond simple repair. It’s starting with Congress.
Matt Floca, the performing arts institution’s new president, is leading a series of tours this month that show water damage and intrusion to expansion joints, marble slabs and exterior pavers. Participants are guided through the building’s water and HVAC systems along with parking garages and loading docks that are said to be in need of repair.
The sessions began earlier this month while Congress was in recess and included staff for a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrats on Capitol Hill. A representative for Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser was also included on the tour.
Similar access has been provided for several corporate and individual donors and in the coming weeks, Floca is expected to provide tours for the lawmakers themselves and members of the media.
Assessing a suddenly controversial operation
Once one of Washington’s relatively few apolitical spaces, the Kennedy Center has become a source of controversy during President Trump’s second term. Shortly after returning to office, Trump ousted the institution’s previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of directors.
The president’s name was added to the building’s facade and its programming took a Trump-friendly turn, serving as a venue for events such as the premiere of First Lady Melania Trump’s documentary, “Melania.”
Trump’s move to shutter the building for two years starting in July, which was approved by the board last month, has spurred lawsuits and an outcry that the closure is merely a response to plunging sales as artists canceled Kennedy Center performances in droves.
The tours are intended to cut through that and show that the Kennedy Center, which began construction in 1964, is in genuine need of a fundamental update.
“As the July closure approaches, the Trump Kennedy Center is leading with transparency and making sure Congress and the public understand what’s at stake and why the work can’t wait,” Floca said in a statement.
In addition to staff for Schumer, Jeffries and Bowser, the recent tour included representatives for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), along with Reps. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) and Rick Larsen (D-Wash.).
By virtue of their positions, these lawmakers are ex officio members of the Kennedy Center’s board. Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi said working with both parties was a “top priority” as the institution implements Trump’s vision for the renovation.
None of the participants discussed the tour on the record.
Need for repairs is not disputed
Those who are arguing against the Kennedy Center’s closure haven’t disputed the need for routine maintenance and repairs. They say the more substantial changes Trump has hinted are in the works should go through the typical review process that governs many major projects in the nation’s capital.
Trump has suggested changes at the Kennedy Center could be so dramatic that the steel supporting the structure could be “ fully exposed.”
According to a lawsuit filed last month against Trump, the Kennedy Center and others in the administration, “Demolition, new construction, major reconstruction, major renovation, or major aesthetic transformation of the Kennedy Center would permanently destroy historic fabric, degrade the monumental core’s vistas and public grounds, and compromise the Kennedy Center’s memorial purpose and architectural integrity, causing permanent, irreversible harm that no subsequent remedy can fully undo.”
The Kennedy Center is entering a critical period before its anticipated July closure, which will produce staff reductions.
In the meantime, the Kennedy Center is still hosting shows, including the musical “Chicago,” which Trump attended this month. Performances of “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” are on the calendar from June 18 through July 5. Comedian Bill Maher will be presented with the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28, just before the closure begins.
The Kennedy Center is part of Trump’s broader effort to leave a lasting imprint on the Washington cityscape. He demolished the East Wing of the White House last year and wants to replace it with a ballroom, an effort that is also tangled in litigation.
The president also unveiled plans on Friday for an arch that would stand between the Lincoln Memorial in the east and Arlington National Cemetery toward the west and within a traffic circle connecting Washington with northern Virginia.
In 2019, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater needed a lifeline. Forced out of its edge-of-downtown home of more than 55 years, the beloved troupe with its thousands of handcrafted puppets — a saucy black cat in heels, a fish out of water that can’t help but wiggle — ultimately found a new location in a Highland Park theater.
Signing a 10-year lease was a sigh of relief for the company, the result of a lengthy search that included more than 80 spaces and ensured its playful, fanciful shows would continue to be a multigenerational, SoCal tradition. But yearly rises in rent, as well as the looming end of the contract, remained a cause of stress for the nonprofit.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater can exhale once again.
The saucy black cat puppet in a performance at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.
(Chloe Rice / Bob Baker Marionette Theater)
The theater’s executive team said it has entered into an agreement to purchase its current location at the corner of York Boulevard and North Avenue 50, which had former incarnations as a movie theater and a Korean church. Once completed, the $5 million acquisition will ensure the theater has a permanent home, a place where skateboarding clowns and leek-haired onions can continue to frolic and dance for decades to come.
“This is monumental for us,” says Alex Evans, the theater’s co-executive director. “It’s been decades of us struggling to survive. Now we’re at this moment where it’s not a struggle. It’s a blossoming moment where our future is set up forever.”
Bob Baker’s Highland Park home was originally built as the York Theater in 1925, hosting movies and vaudeville performances during that era. It most recently housed the Pyong Kang First Congregational Church. Over the years it has also been a barbershop and the site of an organ sales and repair store.
The purchase comes at a celebratory time for the troupe. While its annual Bob Baker Day Festival at the Los Angeles State Historic Park had to be postponed from April 12 to the fall due to a forecast of rain — the historic and fragile puppets cannot be exposed to water — the company still took its show on the road to the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Its adults-only May fundraising event the Puppet Prom, which typically raises more than $30,000, is nearly sold out, and the theater, which also hosts film screenings and concerts (with puppets, of course), continues to pack in full audiences — partly due to its location in a walkable neighborhood with young families.
And in the coming weeks the theater will launch its first new show in 40 years, “Choo Choo Revue.”
“Now is the time,” says Evans, who notes that while they have built new puppets and tweaked existing shows, this is the first proper new production since 1981’s “Hooray LA!” “We have the staff to implement it. We have a sustainable business to be able to pull off what is going to be close to a half-million-dollar production to mount a new show.”
In going public with its intent to secure the York Boulevard theater, the company is initiating a new round of fundraising. Bob Baker over the last year has raised $4.5 million of the $5 million purchase price. It is seeking $500,000 to close the gap as well as an additional $2 million for what it describes as critical renovations, such as repairing the building’s roof and restrooms.
Some of the eccentric canines puppets.
(Chloe Rice / Bob Baker Marionette Theater)
Mary Fagot, Bob Baker’s co-executive director, says the theater has in place a $500,000 loan to ensure the deal closes. Yet Bob Baker does not want to to begin its new era with debt.
“We think it’s an achievable gap,” Fagot says, pointing to community fundraising the theater had to enact to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the days of the shutdown, for instance, the company was able to raise $365,000 in 365 days.
Rising rent, say the co-executive directors, was a key driving factor in the decision to approach the building’s ownership to purchase the space. This year, Bob Baker will pay close to half a million in rent, an amount, says Evans, that is double the theater’s budget when it was in its prior space near downtown L.A. That, coupled with the lease’s impending expiration in a couple of years, acted as a sort of deadline to craft a proposal that could appeal to its building owners.
“We started to have discussions in 2023 with the owners of the building, and those evolved into this becoming a real possibility,” Fagot says. “Then we started the hard work of talking to our biggest supporters about getting behind us.”
Bob Baker, founded in 1963 by its namesake puppeteer, now attracts more than 145,000 audience members per year, including about 20,000 students via school field trips. Funding for the building purchase was secured, in part, by gifts from the Perenchio Foundation, the Kohl Family Foundation, the Ahmanson Foundation, the late Wallis Annenberg, and celebrity donors such as Jack Black and Tanya Haden.
A sidewalk performance outside the Bob Baker Marionette Theater featuring ladybug puppets.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m proud to have played a small part in helping safeguard such a beloved institution that has enriched Los Angeles for decades,” says Brian Mikail of Capstone Equities, which rents the space to the troupe. The hope when signing the lease, says Mikail, was that Bob Baker could someday be set up to purchase the venue.
The agreement, says, Fagot, is a win-win for both sides.
“I think we were the ideal owners for this space,” Fagot says. “If it’s for any other purpose, it would need a giant transformation, and for us, it’s exactly what we need.”
“Choo Choo Revue” is set to open May 16 and will feature more than 100 brand new, handcrafted puppets. Look, for instance, for a conductor with a clock as a face, dancing luggage and a cicada jug band, among a host of other oddities. Expect, perhaps, a crescent moon in pajamas to be a new favorite. Or maybe audiences will instead fall for the singing mushrooms.
“The show invites audiences to go on a train ride, where the show is looking out of a train window and seeing flights of imagination,” Evans says. “It’s daydreams outside of a window. Windmills run around. It’s weird, fantastical abstractions of what’s possible. The hope is by the end of the show people are inspired to be more creative and to look at the world more beautifully.”
There’s also a clear hunger for the type of whimsical, family-friendly entertainment that the theater provides. Gross revenues topped $3.1 million in 2025, up from $699,211 in 2018, according to its most recent annual report. Fagot says the COVID pandemic only increased the demand for the “special brand of magic” that Bob Baker creates.
“People needed community,” she says. “They just need joy. They need inspiration and creativity and want to do it together, and that is what we do.”
McIlroy, who is hoping to become just the fourth player after Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods to win back-to-back Masters titles has held a six-shot lead at this point in a major before.
He went on to win the 2011 US Open by eight shots – claiming the first of his five majors – and also spreadeagled the field with an eight-shot victory at the 2012 US PGA Championship.
And he plans to maintain an aggressive approach around Augusta National over the weekend as he bids to match Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino’s haul of six majors.
“Don’t protect it. Go out and play freely, keep swinging,” he said when asked what advice his 2011 self would have for him before Saturday.
McIlroy led that year’s Masters by four shots going into the final round, but carded an eight-over-par 80 to tumble down the leaderboard.
“A big part of the lesson from the 2011 Masters to the 2011 US Open was don’t get protective,” he added. “Go out there and keep playing, keep trying to make birdies, stay as trusting and as committed as possible.”
McIlroy also said he plans to watch tennis and spend time with his daughter Poppy to take his mind off the third round.
“That distraction is usually a good thing for me, especially with a late tee time and the lead,” he explained.
“There are two really good semi-finals at Monte Carlo in the tennis. So I’ll watch those.
“We’ve been watching the tennis early in the mornings. And then hopefully spend some time with Poppy. I think we’re about halfway through Zootopia 2.”
This quirky village boasts England’s tiniest Grade II listed building and residents who love to see the stars at night
Mary Harris and Mia O’Hare Senior Spare Time Reporter
12:05, 08 Apr 2026
It is a quaint English village to visit (Image: Jonathan Wilson via Getty Images)
England boasts thousands of villages and countless tiny hamlets, each with their own unique stories to share. Communities have been moulded by history, weather patterns, landscape, geology, wildlife, conflict, inhabitants, faith, transportation and commerce.
For those yearning to escape city living and immerse themselves in the natural world, one of Otford’s attractions is that the majority of it lacks street lighting. Certain residents have claimed they “like to see the stars” and one recommending to “buy a torch”.
However, one new arrival wasn’t entirely ready for the darkness, recalling: “I remember my shock the first night after we got the keys to our house.
“I’d never been to Otford at night before. But you will get used to it, and grow quite fond of it, very quickly. Just wait for the first full moon with clear skies and suddenly the penny will drop for you.”
One long-term resident remarked: “Otford doesn’t have street lights as it’s a village not a small suburban town. There are very few people living in Otford who I think want street lights due to light pollution as it’s lovely at night when the skies are clear to see the moon and stars so easily”, reports Kent Live.
The village is home to approximately 3,500 residents, and locals are described as “really friendly” and “lovely”. Surrounded by countryside, it offers the “fresh air” that residents treasure, along with beautiful walking routes.
It’s also conveniently near the M25 and boasts rail connections to London, with journeys taking as little as 35 minutes to London Bridge with one change.
Another intriguing feature of this village — something of a claim to fame — is its diminutive Grade II listed structure, which happens to be England’s smallest. Its occupants are of the web-footed variety, as it’s actually a duck house situated in the village pond.
Historic England said: “The award for smallest listed structure goes to the Duck House in the middle of Otford Village Pond roundabout in Sevenoaks. This rubble and brick circular house shelters the luckiest ducks in England – they enjoy a food allowance from the Parish Council!”
If you are looking to relocate to Otford, Rightmove states the average property sale price over the past year stood at £810,059. The majority of properties sold were semi-detached, fetching an average of £693,458.
Values rose by two per cent compared to the previous 12 months. By contrast, Kent’s average sale price was £421,327.
Otford also has a Solar System, which is a scale representation of planets’ positions. Created for the Millennium, it guides visitors throughout the village to the various planets in proportion.
The village also features the picturesque River Darent, four churches, a village pond, pubs, cafes and shops. If you enjoy travelling back through time, you’ll adore Otford as its history and archaeology reveal people have inhabited this spot for no less than 3,000 years: including farmers during the Iron Age, Romans and Royalty.
Over the years, there has been a palace, a poor house, and a manor court. There’s a heritage trail, a Millennium Mosaic and more attractions to explore, all of which can be discovered on the Otford Heritage website.
The Bull Pub, located on the High Street, is an ancient coaching inn with roots dating back to 1512. The pub is owned by WH Pubs, who also operate The Chaser Inn in Shipbourne, The Little Brown Jug in Chiddingstone, and two other establishments in Kent.
For those keen to delve deeper into Otford’s history, a visit to Otford Palace is a must. This site was once home to the Archbishop’s Palace, dating back to 821 AD.
In 1515 AD Archbishop Warham constructed one of England’s grandest palaces, slightly surpassing Hampton Court in size. Sadly, the buildings fell into disrepair in the 17th Century, and today only part of the North Range remains.
The North West corner tower, part of the Northern Gatehouse and a connecting wall, which has been converted into a row of three quaint cottages. The site, including the Palace Field, is open to visitors.
In 1519, the hunting-obsessed Henry VIII stayed at Otford Palace with his companions, pursuing game in the vast deer park attached to the palace grounds. Between 1532 and 1533, Princess Mary, the future Queen of England, took refuge there amidst the political and religious upheaval that followed the dissolution of her mother’s marriage to Henry.
Ownership of Otford Palace was transferred to a trust in the early 2020s, preventing it from being turned into a housing development.
If you’re up for a five-mile circular walk and prefer not to drive, the railway station is just a third of a mile from your starting point. This route is known as the Otford Walk.
It takes you out of the village, along tracks, over several stiles, through wooded areas and high onto the North Downs for breathtaking views of the countryside. You can park for your Otford Walk in the High Street opposite the Bull Pub.
Video captured the moment of a direct hit by an Iranian missile on a residential building in Israel’s Haifa. Multiple injuries were reported and some people are feared trapped under the rubble of the partially collapsed structure.
Decades on, the city continues to impress with its newness.
It is gearing up to stage the country’s first World Cup match as Canada co-hosts the tournament alongside Mexico and the US.
There will be six games in Toronto — including Canada’s opening Group B match against Bosnia Herzegovina — and the region is prepared for an influx of visitors thanks to its Fan Festival with huge screens, music, art and food.
Toronto is one of the world’s most multicultural cities and you can experience a flavour of that at the Royal Ontario Museum.
If you are a sports fan but didn’t manage to bag World Cup tickets, head to the Rogers Centre to watch the Toronto Blue Jays.
Canada’s only Major League Baseball team, play in the shadow of the CN Tower.
Adrenaline junkies can walk the CN Tower’s EdgeWalk, 1,168ft in the air.
It’s not for the faint-hearted though, so if you have a fear of heights you may want to head to the observation deck instead.
STREETS MADE FOR WALKING?
Absolutely — make sure your footwear is sturdy.
But also pack your flip flops for a visit to the car-free Toronto Islands, home to gorgeous beaches and waters you can paddle in.
Ward’s Island Beach is the place to head for spectacular sunsets, while in the opposite direction is Hanlan’s Point, a nudist beach where shoes — and everything else — are optional.
ANYTHING FOR THE BUCKET LIST?
Niagara Falls hardly needs an introduction and it’s absolutely worth a visit.
The huge waterfall is jaw- droppingly magnificent and you can sail directly into its base on the Maid Of The Mist boat tour (adult tickets start from £22).
You will be provided with a poncho for the trip but it’s rather flimsy, so I’d recommend bringing your own waterproofs too.
Becky Parkinson at Niagara FallsCredit: Supplied
WHERE SHOULD I EAT?
The 206-year-old St Lawrence Market is the best choice for those who can’t decide as it is home to 120 vendors flogging an abundance of seafood, meats and artisanal cheeses.
The peameal bacon sandwiches from Carousel Bakery are legendary.
If you are after dinner with a view — and motion sickness isn’t an issue for you — try the 360 Restaurant inside the CN Tower.
True to its name, the restaurant slowly revolves to give you a full panoramic view of Toronto.
It takes 72 minutes to complete the rotation so, unless you’re a speed-eater, you’ll get the full cityscape with your meal.
I FANCY A DRINK . . .
King Street West in downtown Toronto is known for its thumping nightlife.
You may even spot a few A-listers, as Toronto International Film Festival holds its red carpets and premieres there.
For something a little less raucous, the Harbourfront area is lined with cool bars, many of which offer a skyline view of the Toronto Islands.
WHERE SHOULD I STAY?
The Chelsea Hotel is very well located.
From the airport, you can take the UP Express to Union Station, then jump on the subway and you arrive at the hotel in under ten minutes.
Moments from Sankofa Square (formerly Yonge-Dundas Square and Toronto’s answer to Piccadilly Circus) the hotel is in the heart of the action.
It’s Canada’s largest, with nearly 1,600 rooms spread across 26 floors.
Of course, Canada’s largest hotel isn’t short on entertainment, either.
The highlights include a rooftop terrace, two restaurants and a 130ft water slide in its family-friendly pool area.
GO: TORONTO
GETTING THERE: Flights from London Gatwick, Glasgow and Manchester to Toronto start from £349pp return with Air Transat.
Slegers described an “unbelievable performance” in the second leg because of the fightback Arsenal knew Chelsea would give.
Goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar returned to the starting XI and put in a stunning performance, denying Sam Kerr on several occasions in the second half.
England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy was a rock at the back in the absence of Leah Williamson and Arsenal were not shaken when fellow centre-half Steph Catley went off with a calf injury at the end of the first half.
In-form striker Alessia Russo was full of tricks and flicks. The England international usually keeps touches on the ball to a minimum but she did what it took to escape tricky situations when pressure was building.
Slegers said her team were prepared to “suffer” in order to get what they wanted and it paid off in the end.
“It’s suffering for something you love. I think that’s what the team did really well. They were prepared for a difficult scenario and for momentum shifts,” she added.
“In the first 15 minutes, potentially at the end of the game when things changed again, they just stayed in the ‘controlled middle’, as we call it.
“They stayed in the game and were constantly in control of whatever scenario or momentum swing. They did their job. Mentally we were in control.
“Of course, we wanted to stop them getting chances and in an ideal world there are no shots but it was two really good teams going against each other.”
Former England captain Steph Houghton said Arsenal were “better in big moments” and deserved to progress on the balance of the tie.
Brighton forward Fran Kirby added: “Arsenal allowed Chelsea to have the ball, they were comfortable in their block and defensively worked really hard.
“With the opportunities that they had, they could even have gone on and won the game, so they will be really proud of the performance.
“It showed a different side to Arsenal. It showed what they can do when they have to defend.”
Arsenal will hope to book their place in the final when they take on the winner between Lyon and Wolfsburg – who play each other on Thursday night.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society released video showing rescuers in Tehran lowering a man strapped to a stretcher from the wreckage of a building severely damaged in an airstrike.
One of the most painstaking architectural renewals in recent Los Angeles memory has finally pulled a world-class jewel of modern architecture from obscurity.
Designed by pioneering Modernist architect Richard Neutra in 1928, with limited collaboration from another Modernist icon, Rudolph Schindler, the Jardinette Apartments had been hiding in plain sight on an unassuming Hollywood street for nearly a century. The complex was a technical and spatial breakthrough, and quickly gained international renown as one of the earliest International Style structures in the United States, not to mention Neutra’s first L.A. commission.
But the building’s original owner, Joseph H. Miller, went bankrupt during construction and skipped town to avoid his creditors, and the Jardinette slipped from view. “After that early burst, it just disappeared,” said Barbara Lamprecht, historical consultant for the Jardinette’s rehabilitation, which is just now wrapping up.
For decades the building stood quietly along West Marathon Street: an austere, four-story complex that most people passed without a second glance. Wedged between Western Avenue and Manhattan Place, amid stucco apartment blocks and scrappy bungalows, the edifice had, until recently, grown increasingly shabby as time and neglect took their unforgiving toll.
That changed with the intervention of a newcomer to historic preservation named Cameron Hassid. For years the tireless local developer and his tenacious team have willed the Herculean restoration project to the finish line. Hassid plans to bring the apartments to market before the end of the month.
Property owner Cameron Hassid, left, and Neema Ahadian, commercial real estate agent for Hassid, on the scenic rooftop of the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments in Los Angeles. Neutra imagined the Jardinette Apartments as a prototype for future garden apartment buildings. Nearly 100 years later, the Jardinette is set to reopen after a lengthy redevelopment.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A Radical Design
When the Jardinette first opened it was featured prominently in a seminal survey of early avant-garde apartment housing called “The Modern Flat,” while European architectural publications from Paris to Moscow showcased it as an exemplar of functionalist design, noted Nicholas Olsberg, an architectural historian and curator who has written extensively about Neutra. “It was seen worldwide as one of the signal examples of the new architecture,” Olsberg added.
The Northeast corner of the Jardinette Apartments, circa 1930. When the building first opened in 1928 it was a technical and spatial breakthrough—but it suffered from years of neglect after falling from view.
(Richard and Dion Papers, Collection 1179, UCLA Special Collections)
Built inside and out with reinforced concrete — a modern industrial material that had rarely been employed for housing— the sculpted, U-shaped building, whose jogging corners, projecting sills and swaths of dark and light paint gave it a powerful visual rhythm, used its structural heft to liberate its facade.
Long horizontal bands of easy-to-open steel casement windows, some complemented with concrete balconies, drew daylight and air deep into its 43 efficiently organized units — studios and one bedrooms, ranging from about 400 to 700 square feet — and opened them to wide views of the street and, on higher floors, the Hollywood Hills. Hallways and stairs were saturated with natural light thanks to skylights and strategically placed windows. At the forecourt a modest garden, then dominated by a huge cedar tree, softened the building’s mass, giving the project its name: Jardinette, the little garden.
A roof covered the original skylights in the Jardinette Apartments, but they are now fully exposed.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“Arguably my father had more influence on apartment design than he did on house design,” said Neutra’s son Raymond, pointing to several Neutra designs offering indoor/outdoor lifestyles via “garden apartments.” Raymond, who was on site a few weeks ago, has toured the rehabilitation multiple times.
The Jardinette was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument two years later. Yet despite its formal protections, the building continued its long drift into disrepair.
In 2016 Jardinette’s previous owner, Robert Clippinger, began reviving it, hiring Lamprecht’s firm, Modern Resources, as well as June Street Architecture and land use consultants Cali Planners. The team filed a comprehensive Historic Structure Report that helped secure much-needed tax relief via the Mills Act, a state preservation program. But Clippinger soon faltered under the weight of the many developmental requirements to bring the historic building back. Lawsuits followed. Financing collapsed.
A carpeted hallway beneath an original skylight at the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments in Los Angeles. The Jardinette was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument two years later.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Hassid bought the building in December 2020, in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping Clippinger’s core designers and consultants in place.
Decades of negligence and neglect had proved both a curse and a blessing. Many original steel windows had been swapped out for cheap vinyl replacements. Larger units had been subdivided. At one point the building had been repainted an unfortunate pastel peach and green. Electrical systems dated back nearly a century. Gas water heaters punched vents through the concrete walls.
Yet because the building never attracted a well-funded modernization campaign, much of its essential fabric remained intact.
“Had it been owned by people with more resources,” noted Lamprecht, “there might have been upgrades that blurred the sense of history.”
Corey Miller, a principal at June Street Architecture, described his first encounter with the almost empty property: “There had been 43 units with 43 different people who had been left to their own devices,” Miller said. “Every time we peeled back a layer, there was something worse.”
Unit 302, inhabited for four decades by a single tenant, retained the most original fabric, including an early icebox cabinet. But it also contained endless layers of grime and clutter. It was “disgusting,” Miller said bluntly, but invaluable as forensic evidence. Much of it — like tiles, windows and millwork — were reproduced around the building.
The 128 Jardinette Apartments were painstakingly restored with an eye toward preserving original details including kitchen cabinets, sinks and iceboxes.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The perils of rehabilitating a historic treasure
When Hassid called Miller to ask about buying the building, Miller remembers his response clearly. “You probably have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” he told him.
Hassid’s love of early modern architecture began as a child. His grandparents lived at 848 N. Kings Road in West Hollywood, with a balcony overlooking Schindler’s famed house. So Hassid was familiar with Jardinette’s geometric forms and clean lines. His mother reacted with angry skepticism when he first raised the idea of acquiring the building, but encouraged him to buy it after she learned about the connection.
Nostalgia did not make the rehabilitation any easier. Technical plans required approval, and fixes weren’t straightforward within a protected treasure. “You can’t just go into a historic building with a sledgehammer,” Hassid said. Every move had to align with federal preservation standards and the commitments embedded in the Mills Act contract. Lambert Giessinger, Los Angeles’ historic architect and Mills Act administrator, acted as liaison. Inspections were frequent. Conditions were exacting.
“It’s stressful to have people looking at everything,” Miller admitted. But he credits both Giessinger and Lamprecht with pragmatism. “They were under no illusion that this was going to be done 100% perfect,” he added.
“There’s a lot of wonky stuff in this building that will remain wonky forever,” noted Lamprecht, pointing to settling areas and imperfect details.
Michael Norberg, a land use consultant for the Jardinette Apartments preservation project, stands on the balcony of a unit at the Richard Neutra-designed complex, which will soon reopen after prolonged development issues.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The astonishingly complex rehabilitation revealed a simple-looking building that was anything but. The board-formed concrete carried a subtle wood-grain texture, which had to be left intact, even as seismic reinforcements were added beneath the surface. The finish on white stucco shifted from smooth to pebbled on the walls’ higher reaches, and this had to be carefully re-created.
Original trim had to be salvaged and repaired wherever possible. Kitchens were rebuilt based on archival drawings and surviving fragments. Bathrooms, originally designed around tubs, required discrete tile extensions to accommodate modern showers. The paint scheme, which has been returned to a warm, off-white concrete field with blackish-green bands emphasizing the window walls, had to be reconstructed from historic photographs. Wine red concrete lobby floors were revealed under ungainly tile. Large stairwell skylights were uncovered, while unique, cube-shaped stair post lights were rehabilitated.
Plenty of white tiles replicate the original look in this bathroom in the historic Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments. One floor of the newly preserved 1928 complex features original doors and kitchen cabinets.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Support infrastructure, threaded through the thick concrete frame, was perhaps the messiest challenge. Fire sprinklers, mandated by code, had to remain visible because they could not run through joists without compromising historic fabric. New electrical, plumbing and ventilation had to snake around (or burrow through) beams that original plans didn’t note.
Hassid chose to add air conditioning, and the resulting electrical loads required a 13-foot-deep vault beneath the courtyard. That addition will limit what can be planted in the central garden.
The view from the large windows in a newly restored unit of the Richard Neutra-designed Jardinette Apartments. Original skylights were also preserved during a remarkably complex historic preservation effort.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The team preserved as many original steel casement windows as possible on the primary north-facing facade. These are interspersed with custom reproductions throughout.
The rehabilitation costs climbed past $5 million — accounting for structural analysis, waterproofing, electrical overhaul, plumbing, mechanical, windows, flooring, sprinklers, cabinetry, landscaping — an ever expanding list.
“If I knew then what I know now,” Hassid said with a weary laugh, “I’m not sure I would have done it.” He paused. “But listen, I’m happy I did.”
Today, the building’s value is clear. The courtyard, with vegetation still waiting to grow, is again a communal garden framed by cantilevered balconies. The flat facades have regained their subtle play of depth and shadow. New systems hum quietly, concealed as carefully as possible.
But the building’s renewal has not made it immune to its surroundings. Portions of the exterior were tagged during construction, and some windows have even been shot out by BB guns. As it reemerges, Jardinette could become a lightning rod for those who fear gentrification.
Modernist architect Richard Neutra imagined his first Los Angeles project, the Jardinette Apartments, as a prototype for future garden apartment buildings, but the building fell into disrepair and obscurity for decades. A newly completed historic preservation project will allow it to reopen soon.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Hassid, who initially planned to keep the building, is now testing the waters for a sale with the help of local broker Neema Ahadian of Marcus & Millichap. He said he’s already gotten calls from potential buyers in both the affordable and market-rate sectors. Affordable housing, he added, would be fitting because the smaller units were originally used that way — often for people working in nearby Hollywood studios. The building’s lack of parking could be another factor pushing the sale in that direction.
“I want to leave my options open,” said Hassid. “It’s bittersweet, because we put so much into it.”
Despite swearing off the project more than once, he is hooked by the process.
“I’m looking for my next historic building. After doing it, I know the mistakes I made and how to minimize the lag,” he said.
“This is such a good niche. Others run away from it. I love it because I love the challenge.”
Spring is the season of creation, a time of renewal and new beginnings. In Los Angeles, alas, we were, last spring, a city of cinders. It was a time to mourn.
A hard year followed with floods, ICE, AI, etc., menacing our native optimism. Making matters worse, in December we lost L.A.’s grand visionary vizier, the architect who time and again built us out of civic funk and transformed L.A., inspiring the city he so loved to look good, feel good and do good.
But that is still the case. So many plans Frank Gehry imagined for L.A. still remain. Gehry bequeathed blueprints and models, sketches and concepts, for his large and devoted team of younger architects and next-generation visionaries equipped to fabricate our way out of angst.
Isn’t there supposed to be an Olympics on the way for which the city appears ill-prepared? Spring 2026 is the time to build.
A couple of springs ago, L.A. County dubbed the blocks around Gehry’s masterpiece, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Grand Avenue Cultural District. This includes the rest of the Music Center, Museum of Contemporary Art, the Broad and Colburn School. The Grand, Gehry’s resplendent complex across the street from Disney, had recently opened and ground was about to be broken for the Colburn Center, a 1,000-seat concert hall equipped to also serve dance, opera and whatever yet-to-be-invented genres Gehry designed it to enable.
The Colburn Center is well on its way to completion next year. Bits of the building’s pink skin have started to peek out like spring blossoms on the construction site at 2nd and Olive. The Broad has begun an expansion. But after two years, nothing else has been done to make this the cultural district it must become, one unlike anything else in any city.
Four springs ago I toured Grand Avenue with Gehry to gather what he had in mind for an arts district. When Disney Hall opened in 2003, it instantly became an enduring symbol of L.A., overtaking the Hollywood sign in many cases. The Dodgers want to parade joy in winning their second World Series in row last October, where else but in front of Disney? But not in front of all Gehry had in mind.
We will soon have a pair of futuristic new museum buildings to show off this year: the David Geffen Galleries, the controversial Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Peter Zumthor building (I predict it will prove a sensation), and the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (no predictions on that one) next door to the Coliseum. But the fact that each is a 15-minute ride away from the cultural district’s new Metro station only makes the district even more of a center.
A center, indeed. Gehry’s vision included completing the original plans cost-cut out of Disney a quarter-century ago, along with new modifications and much more throughout the area. Some are more costly than others. Enough could be done on Grand Avenue in time for the Olympics to make a difference if we begin this minute.
Since its opening, Disney has been — shamefully — the most poorly lit building of its stature in the world. Gehry had chosen the specific steel for its capacity to reflect light. His idea was to project on the building whatever concert was taking place that night. No sound, just imagery. Belt-tighteners didn’t want to commit the $2 or $3 million or whatever and go through the trouble.
It was spectacularly tested at the hall’s 10th anniversary, but with tacky prerecorded video and crummy amplification. Facilities are now included in the Grand for projectors. It would have been amazing in 2003 and will be amazing now. The Grand has been disappointingly slow to attract the restaurants, bars, cafes and shops it needs to create a scene. The projections could change all that and even create enough of a ruckus to get a reluctant, car-crazed city to make that Grand Avenue block pedestrian.
There is much more for Disney. Gehry wanted to turn BP Hall, where preconcert talks occur, into a small chamber music hall with a suspended balcony. He had plans for reconfiguring the seldom-used small outdoor Keck Amphitheater into an enclosed jazz club for Herbie Hancock and turning the little-used 1st Street entrance into a glass-enclosed bar that would be named the Ernest, in tribute to Ernest Fleischmann, the L.A. Phil executive director who was responsible for building Disney.
Disney was supposed to have a pit for the orchestra, allowing for staging opera and dance. The plans exist. That could be done in a summer for a couple million. Bottom-liners had also nixed Gehry’s original design for a more gracious lobby with a cafe out front, not the gloomy one installed against his will.
The Colburn Center has the potential for being another game changer for the area, a vibrant new hall where we are promised upward of 200 events a year from all walks of musical life, local and international. But Gehry had in mind even more.
He intended to lower the steep and pedestrian unfriendly 2nd Street hill, so that it would be an easy walk from the new Metro station two blocks away, and add two more pedestrian blocks by diverting traffic to the 2nd Street tunnel. This would connect the cultural district with Grand Central Market on one end and the Broad on the other. Then 2nd could itself become a lively street with the stores and restaurants a “district” needs.
A model of architect Frank Gehry’s design of an addition for Colburn School.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
The extraordinary original plans for the Colburn Center included turning the parking lot across 2nd from the hall into a public plaza with a giant video wall and high-end outdoor sound system, for projecting nightly concerts in the hall. Gehry was a devoted outdoor-indoor architect, and he designed for the hall a balcony on which musicians can perform.
That initiative has thus far been blocked by City Hall officials, fearful of the tunnel’s aging infrastructure. Although if that’s the case, I’m not all that eager to be in the tunnel as it currently is when the Big One comes along. This is where L.A. shows its moxie. Upgrade the tunnel. Now! If this were Beijing, New Delhi or Hanoi, it would be a no-brainer.
Gehry next proposed building low-cost artist housing in Grand Park directly across from the Music Center, which would further create a true arts community. There has been talk of renovating the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for three decades and that’s all it’s been. The corporate-esque recent Music Center plaza could use a little excitement, maybe a Phase II.
Arts make a city. The Edinburgh Festival in Scotland was created after World War II to help bring the city back to life. After its fire-bombing, Tokyo founded a bevy of symphony orchestras as a phenomenal experiment in mass antidepression. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony played no small role in lifting the collective mood, preparing Tokyo to create what now feels like the world’s most arresting capital.
Unlike Scotland, unlike England, unlike Germany, unlike France, unlike Italy, unlike Poland, unlike Russia, unlike Finland, unlike the Czech Republic, unlike China, unlike any number of countries, America has no major international arts festival these days. We had one in L.A. in 1984 with the Olympic Arts Festival. The Cultural Olympiad in 2028 has shown no bones. But if we make the cultural district what it could be, there would be no better place anywhere for a major festival.
We have the goods. L.A. artists helped make the modern Salzburg Festival the meaningful model for all others. In 1992, the summer before Esa-Pekka Salonen became music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, he and the orchestra were invited to shake up clinging Austrian tradition. With the help of director Peter Sellars, they staged Messiaen’s epic opera “Saint François d’Assise,” with pyramids of televisions, resulting in music and monitors upending, in Mozart’s hometown, the role of the modern opera and, so to speak, the sound of music.
Over succeeding decades, both Sellars and Salonen have been Salzburg Festival lodestars. Last summer they were back staging two monodramas, Schoenberg’s “Erwartung” and “Abschied” (the last movement of Mahler’s symphonic song cycle “Das Lied von der Erde”). Conductor and director looked with shocking depth into the “Expectation” of death and gave a “Farewell” to the “Song of the Earth” we all await. I saw it twice and can’t imagine how anyone came away from it quite the same person, not more alive, not more fragile. Art on the stage doesn’t get deeper than “One Morning Turns Into an Eternity,” as Sellars named the production. Salonen, who conducted the production with Vienna Philharmonic, is now about to become the L.A. Phil creative director in the fall and will bring the production to Disney with the L.A. Phil next season. It is thus far the most important opera news of next season in America. All the more reason to build that pit in the hall and get started on much bigger plans.
Salzburg, which manages to come up with around $80 million from here and there, also helped with the question I’ve evaded: Who’s going to pay for all this? I’ve evaded it because it’s the wrong question. Money only started pouring into the building of Disney Hall when people got wind of what it was going to become. Five years ago, Crypto.com paid more than $700 million to change the name of Staples Center. That amount, which created nothing but an advertisement for a product of dubious value to society, is the price of two Walt Disney Concert Halls and probably all of Gehry’s projects put together. It is the amount that could fund nearly nine Salzburg-scale festivals.
If we let ourselves believe that L.A. wealth only cares for mega-crypto advertising, mega-mansions and mega-yachts, then L.A. is over. It isn’t. Do we want to show only that to the world? Downtown, and prominently Crypto.com Arena in L.A. Live, have been designated a center for LA28, as we’re calling the Olympics. That makes a graciously glorifying cultural district, which functions as creation being existential not commercial, just up the road from L.A. Live, L.A. live.
When one morning turns into an eternity, you don’t ask for the bill.
This year marks a veritable museum-palooza as Los Angeles debuts four new major arts complexes, with three in the wings likely to open in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Immerse yourself in a psychedelic explosion at Meow Wolf, plan an afternoon liaison with Van Gogh at LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, inhale the scent of nature inside Refik Anadol’s AI arts museum, Dataland, or simply geek out over George Lucas’ jaw-dropping collection of “Star Wars” memorabilia.
Whatever your arts craving may be, this astoundingly rich new lineup of new local museums has you covered.
LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries
The new David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, are composed entirely of Brutalist concrete.
(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s David Geffen Galleries are set to debut this April to members, before opening for general admission at the beginning of May. The $720-million Geffen Galleries will display 2,500-3,000 objects from LACMA’s collection.
The building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is described by supporters as a “concrete sculpture” and will host 90 exhibition galleries across 110,000 square feet. The Wilshire Boulevard museum’s inaugural exhibition will organize artwork by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea instead of by medium or period.
“The idea is for you to make your own path — not to speak at you, but to let you wander like you would through a park or a place,” LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan said in an interview with The Times. “That change in attitude, and how the building is built, is really exciting.”
Some of the most-anticipated works on display include Georges de La Tour’s “The Magdalen With the Smoking Flame” (1640), Henri Matisse’s “La Gerbe” (1953) and Vincent Van Gogh’s “Tarascon Stagecoach” (1888).
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
The gardens at the Lucas Museum, designed by Studio-MLA, on Monday, May 19, 2025.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
After more than 10 years of anticipation, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s museum will open in Exposition Park this September. With over 10,000 square feet of galleries, the museum will feature a wide array of artwork and pop culture ephemera, including Lucas’ personal trove of “Star Wars” film franchise treasures, “Peanuts” comic strips, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” illustrations, a Richard Sargent painting and covers of the Saturday Evening Post.
Lucas donated his collection to curate the Lucas Archives, which, in addition to “Star Wars,” will encompass props and production art from Lucasfilm projects, such as the “Indiana Jones” franchise.
One of the museum’s defining features is its massive green-roof garden designed by Mia Lehrer and her landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA.
“This brings everything together,” Lehrer said in an interview with The Times. “Design, ecology, storytelling, infrastructure, community. It’s the fullest expression of what landscape can be.”
Meow Wolf
A work-in-progress piece set to be featured in Meow Wolf L.A. as seen during a walk through at the group’s warehouse in Santa Fe on Oct. 15, 2025.
(Gabriela Campos/For The Times)
Meow Wolf’s L.A. location will reimagine a ’90s movie theater with its takeover of the Cinemark at West L.A.’s Howard Hughes entertainment complex outside Culver City. Meow Wolf’s sixth permanent exhibition comes on the heels of the immersive art creator’s 52,000-square-foot psychedelic art installation in Las Vegas, which was disguised as a dystopian grocery store called Omega Mart and promptly went viral on TikTok.
Complete with sci-fi elements, a meditative space and a 30-foot-tall mushroom tower, Meow Wolf’s new location will open at the end of 2026. Although organizers have kept much of the exhibition under wraps, visitors can expect to be transfixed by a thoroughly Los Angeles tale.
“It’s cool that we’re creating a story about a pilgrimage, because L.A. is that for so many artists, especially people involved in storytelling,” Shakti Howeth, Meow Wolf‘s creative director, told The Times. “It’s one of those places that’s built on layers and layers of dreams, and we’re really exploring that here. Not only dreams but broken dreams — the compost that can happen when you digest broken dreams.”
Refik Anadol’s Dataland
Refik Anadol’s Infinity Room is meant to be a multisensory experience.
(Dataland)
Opening this spring at the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A., Dataland dubs itself the world’s first museum of AI arts. Turkish American artist Refik Anadol designed his own AI model, named the Large Nature Model, which only sources material with permission from original creators, making it what Anadol calls “ethical” AI. Partners include the Smithsonian and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
“I’m calling this new art form not AR, not VR, not XR — so we are still finding a name for it. The best name so far, and people love it, is generative reality,” Anadol told The Times.
Dataland will feature five galleries, including the Infinity Room, which Anadol first created in 2014 as a student at UCLA. In another exhibit, he trained an AI model on half a million scents and built a machine to push those scents into the gallery to create a totally immersive viewing experience.
Opening Later
The Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California
Slated to complete construction in downtown Glendale in late 2026, the 51,000-square-foot Armenian American Museum has been in the works for more than a decade. With a $67-million budget, the museum will include permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as an auditorium, learning center, archives collection and a demonstration kitchen.
The museum is an initiative of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee Western US, and planning began as the group prepared to mark the the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015. The museum is adorned with the 36 letters of the Armenian alphabet and a glass hazarashen skylight, inspired by traditional roofs in homes across the Armenian Highlands.
“The Armenian American Museum was once an idea, then a vision, and today is rising before our eyes,” museum Executive Chairman Berdj Karapetian said in a statement. “This progress is the result of an extraordinary collective effort by Armenians and non-Armenians here in California, across the United States and around the world.”
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles is a major expansion of the California Science Center.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
A solid opening date has not yet been announced, but the $400-million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Exposition Park is busily preparing for liftoff. Construction on the building began in 2022. The shiny new building will be home to the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, Kent Kresa Space Gallery and the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, which will host the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Endeavour will be displayed in launch position, making it the tallest authentic spacecraft displayed vertically in the world, with a height of 20 stories. One of three surviving space shuttles, Endeavour made 25 successful missions into space.
The center is also expected to have 20 planes and jets, including a Boeing 747, a mock flight deck and a pair of introductory films produced by J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot, one of which will end with a simulated launch.
“It is an amazing experience, and we want to really build it up,” Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president and chief executive of the California Science Center, told The Times. “It’s not just about the hardware but about the people and the educational aspects.”
The Broad Expansion
Exterior rendering of the future Broad expansion from Hope Street.
Opening in 2028, the Broad expansion will contain 70% more gallery space, two outdoor courtyards, a live programming space and views of the museum’s art storage vault. First announced in 2024, the $100-million addition is slated for completion before the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Located in downtown L.A., the expansion was deemed necessary after the museum significantly exceeded visitor projections. The new building will invert the existing Broad museum’s architectural design, with a smooth, gray structure attached to the original construction.
“The idea is that it adds new facets to the visitor’s journey through the expanded Broad,” said Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of the Broad, in an interview with The Times. “In a way, the existing building is always sort of talking to you. And there will be a similar thing happening with the expansion, but just a slightly different conversation, like you’re listening to its sibling.”
Several central neighbourhoods in Beirut have been attacked in a series of Israeli strikes. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr has been at the scene of one attack that flattened a multi-storey residential building.
It was so big it couldn’t use the English Channel, Suez Canal or Panama Canal.
The biggest ship in the world was taller than iconic buildings(Image: Cheunghyo/Getty)
The biggest ship in the world was longer than both the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building. It was known as the Seawise Giant and became one of the longest self-propelled ships in history.
The boat, later called Happy Giant, Knock Nevis and Mont, was built in Japan between 1974 and 1979. It had the greatest deadweight tonnage of a ship ever recorded.
Fully laden, it was 657,019 tonnes and was the heaviest in the world. Seawise Giant had a draft of 24.6 meters (81ft) and a length of 458.45 meters (1,504.1 ft).
Due to its size, it was incapable of navigating the English Channel, the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal.
The ship has a long history, and was created by Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan, as an Ultra Large Crude Carrier.
It remained unnamed for a long time and was identified as its hull number, 1016. The ship suffered severe vibration problems during sea trials, and an unknown Greek owner refused to take delivery of it.
Eventually, the Japanese shipyard sold the ship thanks to a deal with Hong Kong Orient Overseas Container Line. Yet, they wanted to lengthen the ship by several meters and add 146,152 tonnes of cargo capacity.
Two years later, the ship relaunched as the Seawise Giant. In 1988, it was damaged during the Iran-Iraq war after fires erupted aboard the ship, and oil spread into the water.
The ship was still intact but was so damaged it was not deemed economical to repair.
However, a Norwegian investment firm bought the damaged ship. Over the next few years, it was repaired and renamed Happy Giant.
Up until 2004, the ship was owned by various Norwegian investment firms. It was then purchased by First Olsen Tankers and renamed Knock Nevis.
The ship was converted into a primarily moored storage tanker in the Persian Gulf.
However, it was then taken on by new owners Amber Development and named Mont. It had one final voyage to India where the ship was scrapped.
The ship was beached in December 2009 and due to its size, it took until the end of 2010 for it to be scrapped. The Seawise Giant’s anchor was saved and is on public display in Hong Kong.
It goes down in history as the longest ship ever constructed at 458.45 meters and is taller than many of the world’s tallest buildings. The Eiffel Tower stands at 330 meters and the Empire State Building at 443 meters.
