A Lovely Father's Day

Had a wonderful Father’s Day. After lunch at Pink’s Hot Dogs, our main destination that day was the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. We last visited shortly after its opening in 2022. Among the exhibits was a retrospective of the films and career of John Waters.

The museum is housed at the historic May Company Wilshire Building, which is designated a historic cultural landmark by the City of Los Angeles, partly due to being a prime example of “streamline moderne” architectural design. (The interior was entirely renovated but the facade of the street-facing side of the building remains.)

Before being occupied (via a longterm lease) by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the property was purchased by the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA) next door. (The La Brea Tar Pits is on the other side of LACMA—the Petersen Automotive Museum is across the street, which we’ve also visited several times on past Father’s Days.)

LACMA has actually been undergoing a major renovation—when we were finished at the Academy Museum, we briefly strolled over to the LACMA grounds and could see the new museum under construction! (An artist’s rendition of the completed project is included in my photos below.)

The renovation began around 2020. In fact, in 2019, our daughter interned at LACMA as part of a very competitive L.A. County-wide high school internship program at the museum—she was the last cohort of internships before they paused the program due to the renovation!

Anyway, it was a wonderful Father’s Day that ended with a lovely dinner with the family at a favorite French restaurant, Meet Me in Paris (pictured above).

Photos of Pink's Hot Dogs:

L.A. County Museum of Art:

Academy Museum of Motion Pictures: