From Garage to Gallery at the Huntington

There it goes again, messing with perfection. The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens already has a world-renowned cache of rare books and artworks housed on a sumptuously cultivated estate in San Marino, so it might be expected to leave well enough alone. But the venerable institution has expanded its collections and facilities significantly over the past 20 years, and the pattern of growth continues.

The latest major addition, opening today, is the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery, designed as a showcase for temporary exhibitions and related programs. The project was funded by a gift of $3.6 million from the Boones, longtime residents of San Marino who support many art and educational institutions in Southern California.

The 7,200-square-foot gallery is not a new building, but for all the public has known, it might as well be. To accommodate the commodious exhibition space, the Huntington has transformed a former garage that has been hidden from view, on a private area of the grounds.

Mind you, this is not just any old garage. Designed by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, who dreamed up the Beaux Arts mansion that houses the Huntington Art Gallery, it’s a Neoclassical structure built in 1911 for railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington’s fleet of automobiles and for staff lodgings.

A new walkway leads northwest from the plaza of the Huntington’s Virginia Steele Scott Gallery to the Boone Gallery. And, as visitors will see, the surrounding area is the future site of gardens and the Botanical Research and Education Complex, which is expected to open in 2003.

“This provides a whole new dimension for the Huntington,” Mary Lou Boone said of the multifaceted development. “The gallery, along with the Botanical Research and Education Complex, opens up a part of the grounds that has been closed in the past and provides new educational opportunities and resources. The gallery is a new space for exhibitions, but it will also be used for lectures and conferences.”

The inaugural exhibition is “The Art of Bloomsbury,” an extensive compendium of paintings and decorative arts by Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry and Duncan Grant, who were leading members of the group of artists and writers that flourished in London’s Bloomsbury district in the early 20th century. Organized by the Tate Gallery in London, the show examines the three artists’ contributions to British modern art. More than 150 colorful paintings, drawings, designs and furnishings are on view, along with documentary material about the Bloomsbury group.

In recent years, Huntington’s grand garage fell into disrepair and suffered the indignity of being used as a storehouse for lawn mowers and other gardening equipment. But no one would guess that now, thanks to Brenda Levin and Associates, a Los Angeles architectural firm known for large-scale renovations and adaptive reuse of historic buildings.

The exterior of the stately rectangular structure--distinguished by a central bank of three identical double doors, framed by pairs of columns--is now in pristine condition. Levin repaired the crumbling concrete balustrade and cornice, replaced broken windows and refurbished outside walls with a new coat of plaster and white paint.

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Inside, she removed the central skylight--to prevent damage to artworks--but added skylights in the foyer, which also accommodates a small bookstore. To provide necessary wall space for the gallery, she covered windows and divided the cavernous main section into smaller rooms, detailed with moldings that echo decorative motifs on the exterior. In a departure from her usual architectural work, Levin also designed the installation of the Bloomsbury show.

The ambience of the inaugural exhibition is “domestic, personal and intimate, which is what Bloomsbury is about as much as anything,” said Edward J. Nygren, director of art collections at the Huntington. But the gallery is versatile enough to work well for a variety of exhibitions and programs, he said.

For one thing, it will be an ideal home for large exhibitions, such as those on Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and the California Gold Rush, which have been squeezed into the library’s exhibition hall while relegating some of the Huntington’s highly treasured books and manuscripts to storage. The new gallery will offer a permanent, well-designed gallery space for traveling exhibitions and thematic examinations of the Huntington’s collections of art, books and manuscripts, Nygren said.

The next show at the Boone Gallery (July 11-Sept. 3) is “Religion and the Founding of the American Republic,” organized by the Library of Congress. Also scheduled are a Huntington-organized show of photographic panoramas and “The Lure of the West,” a traveling exhibition from the collection of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, featuring works by Frederick Church and Thomas Moran. In 2002, the Boone Gallery will be the only American venue for a retrospective of British 18th century painter George Romney’s work.

“I think this building has enormous potential,” Nygren said. Among its assets, he noted that two retractable projection screens in the ceiling can be lowered to show slides, and one room can be closed off for educational events or small exhibitions. A preparation facility also provides a much needed staging area.

But welcome as these functional attributes may be, what Nygren likes best about the Boone Gallery is that it just feels right. “It’s a great little building partly because you can take it all in; it has a human scale,” he said, walking outside and looking back on the facade. “It’s such an exquisite structure; the proportions are so satisfying.”

* “The Art of Bloomsbury,” Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Through April 30. Tuesdays-Fridays, noon-4:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Adults, $8.50; seniors, $7; students, $6; children under 12, free. (626) 405-2141.