Ray’s & Stark Bar
5905 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles
Tel: 323.857.6180
Architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop

Renzo Piano has finally completed his work at LACMA with Ray’s, a restaurant named after Ray Stark, the late film producer whose Fran and Ray Stark Foundation played a major role in the museum’s transformation. Like much of Piano’s work at LACMA, the eatery—located next to Piano’s new outdoor pavilion and across the way from his Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) and Resnick Pavilion—is a simple modernist structure, with large floor to ceiling glass walls meant to soak up its artsy surroundings. Red I-beams and a thin canopy punctuate an otherwise minimal composition. Perhaps the most compelling elements are the space’s fine art pieces, many from the museum’s collections. This includes teacups from Eva Zeisel, Russel Wright, and Keith Murray; a large interlocking hanging textile by Bernard Kester; cube-inspired video art by Brody Condon, and classic furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, Herman Miller and Eero Saarinen. The simple space adds a needed dose of mid-century liveliness to the west end of the ever-evolving museum.

Sam Lubell