MaryLou and George Boone Gallery

The opening of the MaryLou and George Boone Gallery in March 2000 marked the unfolding of a new chapter at The Huntington, as the gallery created an international-class venue for changing exhibitions. Since its opening, The Huntington has been able to undertake major exhibitions drawn from its own collections and bring exciting national and international exhibitions to Southern California from other museums and galleries.

The building itself has a long history. Designed in 1911 by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, it was once founder Henry E. Huntington’s garage, used for family automobiles and to provide living quarters for members of Mr. Huntington’s staff. It took the commitment, vision, and generosity of MaryLou and George Boone to make the transformation of the space from garage to gallery possible.

Levin & Associates, a Los Angeles–based architectural firm nationally known for large-scale restorations and adaptive reuse projects, renovated and restored the original building. It had been designed for Henry Huntington by Los Angeles architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, who were also the architects of the Beaux Arts mansion, which is now the Huntington Art Gallery, as well as the Library building.

Brenda Levin, FAIA, architect of the Wiltern Theater, Bradbury, Oviatt, and Fine Arts building renovations, adapted the neoclassical-design structure, providing 4,000 square feet of space for use as a changing exhibition gallery. The building is now capable of accommodating any number of exhibition configurations, with movable walls, multiple electrical outlets, and a lighting system that can illuminate objects anywhere in the room. The gallery is equipped with state-of-the-art emergency power, as well as safety and fire detection systems, and is specially configured to provide for ambitious educational programs associated with exhibitions.