By Annie Block
Architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee have built an impressive portfolio of significant cultural projects, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago renovation and the ground-up Menil Drawing Institute in Houston. All are pared-down and sculptural with a sensitivity to scale and an inclusion of natural elements. Their latest endeavor continues that through line while also incorporating adaptive reuse. Roberts Projects, a welcome addition to the gallery scene in Johnston Marklee’s hometown of Los Angeles, occupies a 1940’s, former car dealership in the Mid-Wilshire district. The second commission from the client, the new gallery is three times the footprint of the original Culver City location, encompassing three intimate exhibition areas plus a daylit central hall. The “largely symmetrical interior plan,” the firm notes, not only supports RP’s range of output but also its mission: to present a diverse program emphasizing museum-quality, installation-based exhibits by an international roster of emerging, mid-career, and established artists. A Kehinde Wiley exhibition inaugurated the space earlier this year; Evan Nesbit’s “/’sın.k.si̵s/” runs through July 8. Meanwhile, Johnston Marklee is at work renovating Roy Lichtenstein’s New York studio, a massive, former factory building, into the Whitney Museum’s permanent site for its independent study program.