Wedged between Los Angeles and Santa Monica, the old movie town of Culver City is almost unrecognisable from a decade ago. Best known as the home of Sony Pictures and the Helms Bakery complex, the area has a lot more to offer today, with a swanky Downtown, an Arts District that boasts some of the best galleries in LA, and a swathe of new transit initiatives.
For an area just over 13 sq km, it’s architecturally diverse too: from its handsome Beaux-Arts buildings like The Culver Hotel, to the nearby neighbourhood of Hayden Tract, where local architect Eric Owens Moss has turned a declining warehouse district into a thriving beehive of architectural experimentation.
With Amazon, Apple and HBO helping to fuel a revitalisation—bringing with them an influx of design-forward shops and restaurants—Culver City is fast becoming one of California’s most vibrant and creative neighbourhoods.
Best of Culver City: what to see, where to stay
Blum & Poe
An art tour of Los Angeles isn’t complete without a trip to the 2,000 sq m complex of Blum & Poe, one of the founding galleries of the Culver City Arts District. When tastemakers Tim Blum and Jeff Poe moved their Santa Monica gallery to an industrial warehouse in 2003, it became a catalyst for the development of the area’s arts corridor.
The gallery is a vocal advocate of efforts to lower the commercial art world’s carbon footprint by rethinking the way it approaches auctions and fairs. Blum & Poe exhibits both established and up-and-coming contemporary artists, and programming highlights include an exploration of the art of ikebana by Japanese-Brazilian artist Asuka Anastacia Ogawa (11 March – 15 April 2023), and a Thornton Dial retrospective (29 April – 10 June 2023).