What’s Happening: A decades-long makeover by Michael Maltzan Architecture is propelling the Hammer Museum headlong into the 21st century, and is yet another sign of L.A. assuming the mantle of America’s cultural capital.

The Download: In the late ‘90s, when Ann Philbin reluctantly agreed to leave her post at The Drawing Center in New York to spearhead the relatively young Hammer Museum, Los Angeles wasn’t regarded as a hub for world-class cultural institutions. But the enterprising Philbin saw potential in her new city and the little-known museum, which business magnate Armand Hammer launched eight years earlier in an unassuming Westwood Village building owned by his company Occidental Petroleum to show off his prized collection of Impressionist paintings and European artworks dating back to the Renaissance.

In the quarter-century since, Philbin has dramatically transformed the Hammer Museum into a formidable player in the city’s cultural sphere. Beyond acquiring 4,000 pieces of boundary-pushing contemporary art and significantly reorienting its mission, Philbin has tripled the museum’s staff, quadrupled its annual budget, and increased its endowment from $35 million to $125 million. She also recently pulled back the curtain on a $90 million renovation by Michael Maltzan Architecture, a firm with a penchant for crafting local landmarks, that sprawled across more than two decades of starts and stops.

Maltzan’s careful renovation befits a long-overlooked museum ready to cement its position on the global stage. He added 10,000 square feet of gallery space, raised ceilings, and created an outdoor sculpture garden, all while respecting the structure’s original footprint. Doors were widened and windows enlarged; stuffy ornate molding that once complemented Monets and Rembrandts has been stripped out. Now that space is occupied by dozens of artworks from the contemporary collection, including pieces by the likes of Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Eva Hesse, and Robert Gober. In the lobby, Chiharu Shiota’s giant tangled web of red wool immediately sets a 21st-century tone.

The Hammer Museum—and by extension, Philbin—has been instrumental in positioning L.A. as a newfound locus for contemporary art. Beyond the recent arrival of blue-chip galleries such as Marian Goodman, Hauser & Wirth, and Tanya Bonakdar, a spate of marquee museums designed by bold-faced architects has dramatically reshaped the landscape. There’s the racetrack-swaddled Petersen Automotive Museum; the breathtaking Broad; and the giant ode to film that is the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Underway are two more giants—Peter Zumthor’s controversial LACMA redesign and the perennially delayed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art by Ma Yansong that’s finally starting to take shape.

In Their Own Words: “Each piece [of architecture] has been tailored to the way that the Hammer Museum was thinking about their future, not about their past,” Maltzan told Hyperallergic. “Museums are not, in fact, storehouses removed from the vicissitudes of what’s going on in culture, but they can keep pace with culture.”

Surface Says: Even Orange County has something to show for itself.

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Since launching in 2014, Colony has uplifted the independent design community by offering creative direction and consulting to ensure its clients are presented in the best possible light. Now, founder Jean Lin is taking her mission to nurture the next generation of design talents one step further with the debut of the Designers’ Residency, a first-of-its-kind incubator program that aims to introduce American talents to the global design market and ensure their success within an industry often fraught with high barriers to entry.

During an intensive eight-month tenure, residents undergo a multifaceted learning program focused on product development and design entrepreneurship crafted by Lin and Colony art director Madeleine Parsons informed by their experiences as professors at Parsons and RISD. “Starting one’s own studio is an enormous undertaking both creatively and financially, and a privilege that’s not always afforded to many immensely talented designers,” Lin says. “My hope is this program allows more voices to shine, and more young designers feel supported enough to take the leap into creating work that’s wholly their own.”

It’s off to a great start. The residency’s debut sees the launch of two promising studios—and an exhibition of their first collections at Colony’s space in Lower Manhattan opening today. Marmar Studio, founded by furniture designer Ingemar Hagen-Keith, channels spirited gestures and silhouettes into sculptural wooden pieces inspired by animal forms. Alexis Tingey and Ginger Gordon join forces on Alexis & Ginger, a studio whose alluring furniture melds craft and storytelling through the nuanced lenses of architecture, tapestry, and their intrinsic histories. Applications for next year’s residency are open until May 1.

Everyone from Charles Dickens and John Everett Millais to Auguste Rodin has socialized inside the historic townhouse of The Arts Club, Mayfair’s iconic private members club that has long served as a gathering place for influential writers, artists, and thinkers. Its next move is a tasteful spruce courtesy of Milanese designer Giuseppe Porcelli, who was tasked with giving the storied space a facelift that respected its history while priming it for the modern age.

With a nod to 1930s and ‘40s Milanese architecture, the first floor channels the elegance of an English aristocrat exploring Italy’s classical ruins—known as the Grand Tour, the customary British sojourn through the country to get a taste of dolce vita. The enchanting Ofelia lounge is inspired by Millais’ famous painting of the same name and offers members Venetian-style cicchetti and other Italian dishes courtesy of chef Stefano Mazzonzelli.

It joins the Mediterranean-focused brasserie and Condo Salon, where custom wallpaper depicting a forest is buoyed by hand-painted wisteria and the club’s remarkable George Condo collection. Porcelli’s eclectic scheme marries warm browns and enamel tones with an array of striking patterns and textures—think marble walls, cheetah-print pillows, and jacquard wallpaper—culminating in a modern ambiance that feels both familiar and refreshingly new.

Byredo is at its most interesting when it swerves out of bounds for a typical fragrance house. The brand has already made an impression with showings at Salone del Mobile and Paris Fashion Week, but recently commissioned rising photographer Gabriel Moses to reintroduce one of its most well-known fragrances: Bal D’Afrique.

According to founder Ben Gorham, translating memories to scent was the underlying inspiration for the fragrance—one of the first in the brand’s quiver. As the first of many creatives tapped to reinterpret Byredo’s best-known scents, Moses’ exuberant photography captures Gorham’s nostalgia, resulting in an homage to African culture and the beauty of his Nigerian heritage.

When: April 6–June 3

Where: Emma Scully Gallery, New York

What: Nine sculptural design objects from the Savvy Studio founder’s repertoire—including low-slung stools made with his community—speak to his predilection for “going through each day, observantly and present in the natural world.” A natural elegance pervades thanks to materials such as wood, glass, stone, and ceramic, which balance gentleness and strength while leaving each object’s meaning open to interpretation. “I see this as a concrete poem or haiku,” Prieto says, “something for others to engage with and feel connected to, as I do.”

The classic puzzle game Tetris asks players to fit together falling geometric shapes composed of four squares (known as “tetrominoes”) to form horizontal lines. The completed lines disappear; the game ends when uncleared lines reach the top of the playing field. That simple premise has proven wildly popular. Since debuting in 1984, Tetris has sold nearly 500 million copies—the vast majority being mobile downloads—making it one of history’s best-selling video game franchises. Only Mario has outsold it.

But few people may be versed in the game’s dramatic origin story. That’s where Tetris, an Apple TV+ political thriller that debuted March 31, comes in, recounting the history behind the late-‘80s legal battle that propelled a clever concept into a global phenomenon. It stars Taron Egerton as Henk Rogers, a Dutch game designer who discovered Tetris at a Las Vegas trade show and traveled to the Cold War–era Soviet Union to secure the game’s licensing rights for the nascent Nintendo Game Boy despite the fraught political climate. He soon meets Tetris’s inventor, Alexey Pajitnov, and Hungarian businessman Robert Stein, who tried to secure the game’s rights for his own company.

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