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BEVERLY HILLS, CENTURY
CITY, AND WESTWOOD
West of West Hollywood is BEVERLY HILLS, a city jammed with fantastic
places to eat and shop, but one of its most appealing activities is the
90- minute BEVERLY HILLS ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE TROLLEY tour (Saturdays,
May through December, $5 adults, $1 children under 12). The I. M. Pei-designed
Creative Artists Associates (CAA) building with its lobby Lichtenstein,
the venerated PaceWildenstein and Gagosian galleries, as well as other
important art and architecture sites in the area are stops along the way;
310/285-2438. The tour concludes at the MUSEUM OF TELEVISION & RADIO
(465 N Beverly Drive; 310/786-1000), which offers special screenings and
exhibitions; it also boasts a collection of
over 90,000 radio and television shows that may be heard or viewed on
audio and video monitors in private carrels on the second floor.
West of Beverly Hills along Santa Monica Boulevard is CENTURY CITY,
with its enormous hotels, magnificent theaters, towering office complexes,
and the CENTURY CITY SHOPPING CENTER (see Shopping ), which is the premier
mall in the city. Further west, the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
(UCLA) is in the charming community of Westwood. Any visit to the campus
must include a stop at the handsome, Romanesque-style, red-brick FOWLER
MUSEUM OF CULTURAL HISTORY (310/825-4361; www.fmch.ucla.edu). The museum
possesses a permanent display of cultural objects from the world over.
In recent years, it has hosted the intriguing and highly popular "Scene
of the Crime" and "Voodoo" exhibitions. Featuring sculpture
by artists such as Rodin, Calder, and Hepworth, the FRANKLIN MURPHY SCULPTURE
GARDEN is near the Fowler and well worth the extra steps. To find the
ARMAND HAMMER MUSEUM OF ART AND CULTURAL CENTER (10899 LOS ANGELES AREA
Wilshire Boulevard; 310/443-7000), leave the UCLA campus via Westwood
Boulevard and travel south to Wilshire Boulevard; the Hammer Museum is
on the left. The most extraordinary feature of the museum, which opened
in 1990, is its extensive collection of works by Honore Daumier.
South of Beverly Hills, Westwood, and Century City in the Rancho Park
area is the remarkable MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE & SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER
FOR HOLOCAUST STUDIES (9786 Pico Boulevard, at Roxbury Drive; 310/553-8403;
www.wiesenthal.com/mot/index.html), where visitors interactively explore
the history of racism and the Holo caust. The community of West Los Angeles
is home to the MUSEUM OF JURASSIC TECHNOLOGY (9341 Venice Boulevard near
Robertson Boulevard; 310/836-6131; www.mjt.com), a peculiar collection
of what the curator and staff—all kidding aside—refer to as
"natural" displays. The establishment is an ingenious hoax that
takes itself utterly seriously, but it's also a crucial stopover for anyone
with a sense of humor and a taste for the astonishing.
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