Archinect - News

Inside the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s new $75 million expansion

2024-11-18T07:20:00-05:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) has opened its $75 million NHM Commons expansion to the public. Designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners, with landscape architecture by Studio-MLA and exhibition spaces by Studio Joseph, the NHM Commons comprises approximately 75,000 square feet of renovated and newly constructed space.

Image credit: Benny Chan

The centerpiece of the design is a transparent glass façade, creating a visual connection between the museum and Exposition Park. Inside, the Commons Theater and various multipurpose spaces have been built to accommodate an expanded slate of community-centered programming. The new spaces facilitate engagement with science, culture, and nature, including areas for those visiting without a ticket.

Image credit: Benny Chan

Outside, Studio-MLA has developed a community plaza in collaboration with Native American advisors, featuring sustainable planting, Tongva-inspired mortar i...

California Science Center's Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center expansion tops out in Los Angeles

2024-10-15T18:16:00-04:00

Construction has topped out on the ZGF Architects-led design for the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park.

The 200,000-square-foot project expands the museum’s programmable exhibition space by 110,00 square feet and shelters the decommissioned Space Shuttle Endeavor in a 200-foot-tall central space that organizes all three levels. Completion of the $425 million project is scheduled for mid-2025. Construction at the site began in June of 2022. Arup is the engineering partner.

Image courtesy California Science Center

Rendering courtesy California Science Center

LA issues RFQ for $352 million Exposition Park recharge

2024-08-19T11:52:00-04:00

The City of Los Angeles will issue a major $352 million upgrade to Exposition Park in its build-up to the 2028 Olympic Games in an effort to address spatial inequalities in neighborhoods that had been “historically left behind,” Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said at the August 1st announcement.

In order to help mitigate the effects of an urban heat island in one of California’s most park-deficient and densely populated areas, the project will install a new six-acre green space and underground parking structure. Residents of the surrounding neighborhoods in South LA will benefit from the incorporation of other state-of-the-art amenities like EV charging stations and a new community space after asphalt surface parking areas are removed from its southeast corner. The announcement noted this area is currently underserved with only about 1 acre of green space available per every 1,000 persons, which is about ten times less than the national average.

Image: Torti-Gallas + Partners

Califor...

It's a 'Go' for ZGF's Space Shuttle Endeavour installation at the California Science Center

2024-01-31T12:12:00-05:00

ZGF Architects has completed the installation of the decommissioned Space Shuttle Endeavour and orbiter system as a part of their Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center expansion at the California Science Center museum in Los Angeles.

The unique project will culminate in a three-level level scheme that includes 150 different exhibitions, the largest of which, a 200-foot-tall central gallery space, is set to be used as a new permanent display for the 122-foot-long retired NASA orbiter.

Video courtesy California Science Center

Since July, the construction team at Exposition Park has been busy at work on the “Soft mate” phase of the “Go for Stack” installation process for the space shuttle apparatus. The same painstaking process that decades ago prepared the shuttle for its 25 launches into outer space was once again enacted at the site for the record first time in civilian history. Work to install the solid rocket boosters and external tank preceded the shuttle’s move into place before ...

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art begins exterior finishes ahead of 2025 debut

2023-11-22T18:21:00-05:00

The finish line for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art may still be out on the horizon, but the exterior of the $1-billion project from Star Wars and Indiana Jones creator George Lucas is starting to take shape.

The blog Urbanize LA has some nice construction photos of the inbound Lucas Museum of Narrative Art project that’s set to culminate in 2025 in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. Progress since our last update seems to have advanced on the roof of the 300,000-square-foot structure, where a photovoltaic array, a new green roof, and other exterior finishes are being installed.

The $1 billion design from MAD Architects was announced to have been delayed again in September of last year over supply chain problems. Once it opens, it will feature four stories and a total 300,000-square-feet of floor area with multiple exhibition spaces, a library, two theaters, and landscape program designed by Studio-MLA.

"We’re building an institution, a 200-plus-year proposition," Director Sandra Jackson-Dumont had said previously. "And we’re doing it amidst the most uncertain moments in our time.”

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's $75 million NHM Commons expansion tops out in Exposition Park

2023-05-30T13:05:00-04:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has just celebrated its topping out for the new 75,000-square-foot NHM Commons expansion led by LA mainstays Studio-MLA and Frederick Fisher and Partners.

The project creates a new wing and community hub on the southwest side of the museum’s campus in Exposition Park and will be open to the public by the end of next year following a multi-year construction phase.

The museum describes: “The indoor/outdoor NHM Commons spaces will enable NHM to expand its community-centered, co-created programming, thereby further connecting the public with science, nature, culture, heritage, and community, while creating opportunities for people to come together to experience NHM, with or without a ticket.”

NHMLAC President and Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga. Photo by Wade Hammond, courtesy of NHMLAC.

At last week’s special beam signing ceremony, NHMLAC President and Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga added: “This transformative expansion will be a dynam...

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles shares updates on new community-focused NHM Commons and collaboration with Native American community leaders

2022-12-09T17:09:00-05:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has announced updated plans for a Studio-MLA and Frederick Fisher and Partners-led expansion that is now taking shape for the year 2024.

New renderings of the 60,000-square-foot project appear to add interior details to the previous announcement, which showcased a unique transparent "curated facade" meant to exhibit pieces from the museum similar to a giant display case or vitrine.

As part of the effort, the museum has formed two new advisory groups, the NHM Commons Native American Advisory Council and the NHM Commons Advisory Coalition. The groups will advise the design team (which now also includes New York-based Studio Joseph) as to how best to determine "ways to build a sense of welcome, acknowledgment, and respect for Native people who enter this space and opportunities to remind, express to and educate visitors that Los Angeles is on Native land."

Renderings by Frederick Fisher and Partners, Studio MLA, and Studio Joseph. Courte...

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening date pushed back again to 2025 due to supply chain issues

2022-09-22T12:13:00-04:00

The opening of MAD’s highly-anticipated Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has been delayed until the year 2025 over apparent issues in the construction supply chain, according to a report published yesterday in the LA Times.

In an interview with the paper, the museum’s director Sandra Jackson-Dumont indicated that, while construction was still moving forward “in all areas,” an inability to obtain the necessary geofoam filling elements, light fixtures, and elevator components has coupled with existing on-site safety-related delays to bump its debut again by another two years.

The museum’s opening had already been pushed back due to Covid-19 protocols after first breaking ground in 2018.

Previously on Archinect: Delays push back opening of the MAD-designed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

As ARTNews reported, this is a problem that has also affected the OMA-led expansion of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Gallery and the $60 million overhaul of the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, CT. Supply chain issues ...

SoCal NOMA looks to inspire future designers with a summer camp focused on LA's changing Exposition Park

2021-07-29T15:07:00-04:00

A diverse group of middle and high school age students is getting a sneak preview of the blockbuster changes coming to Los Angeles’ Exposition Park this summer thanks to the Southern California chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), a group dedicated to the advancement and development of future professionals.

Students at SoCal NOMA’s Project Pipeline summer camp will get a closer look at the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in addition to future projects planned for ZGF's revitalized, park-like Oschin Air and Space Center and Natural History Museum extension underway from Fredrick Fisher and Partners.

The camp lasts four days and includes lots of hands-on sessions with professionals meant to expose school-aged children to the built environment and architectural profession. Students of all skill and interest levels rotate through a series of workshops that explain the design process through an eight-step program that builds their knowledge base ...

Steel frame of LA's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is making progress

2020-02-18T14:49:00-05:00

Four cranes are standing tall in Exposition Park, as the steel framework begins to take shape for the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Urbanize LA was able to peek over the construction fence at the future Lucas Museum of Narrative Art site in Los Angeles and catch some shots of the growing steel skeleton.

Designed by Ma Yansong's MAD Architects, the $1-billion museum will be one of several high-profile sports and entertainment venues in South LA's Exposition Park.

The project broke ground in mid-March 2018 and is gearing for completion in late 2021.

First crane goes up at Lucas Museum of Narrative Art construction site

2018-07-16T13:16:00-04:00

Four months ago, ground was broken for the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Exposition Park. Construction has now gone vertical, with a tower crane soaring above Vermont Avenue. The 300,000-square-foot facility, which is being built as a legacy project by Star Wars creator George Lucas, replaces two former parking lots with a four-story, 115,000-square-foot structure that will serve as the permanent home for the filmmaker's 10,000-piece collection.

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art breaks ground in Los Angeles

2018-03-14T15:37:00-04:00

After several years of planning and proposals in different cities, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, funded by the “Star Wars” filmmaker George Lucas, is breaking ground today on a new building here that its leaders predict will take about four years to complete. Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the museum will occupy a corner of Exposition Park, an urban hub near the University of Southern California that already contains three museums [...].

Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

After protective fencing went up last month at its Exposition Park site in South Los Angeles, the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, designed by MAD Architects, finally broke ground today.

MAD's Lucas Museum of Narrative Art prepares to break ground in Los Angeles

2018-02-12T15:11:00-05:00

One year after Los Angeles unexpectedly won the right to host the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the spaceship-like project is now ready to push dirt in Exposition Park. Protective fencing now encircles the site of filmmaker George Lucas' $1-billion legacy project, which replaces two parking lots at the intersection of 39th Street and Vermont Avenue. The eventual four-story, 115-foot-tall building will feature[...] Lucas' 10,000-piece collection, a library, two theaters, classrooms, and offices.

Image courtesy of Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Exposition Park in South Los Angeles has already a number of high-profile construction projects going on (new MLS soccer stadium and Coliseum makeover to host the 2028 Summer Olympics) or on the books, and the $1-billion Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, designed by Ma Yansong's MAD Architects, appears to be breaking ground soon as well.

LA's Natural History Museum makeover to include a "curated facade" displaying objects from the collection

2017-10-20T13:17:00-04:00

Including its basement level it would add about 60,000 square feet of space, bringing the museum’s total square footage to 485,000, without dramatically expanding its footprint in the park. The addition would take the form of a glass cube holding a new entrance and a flexible, multipurpose event space at ground level.

Renderings by Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects

The Natural History Museum plans a makeover by Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects. With the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art on its way, Exposition Park will be getting more crowded. The extension of the NHM is still in the conceptual-design phase. The facade will include large glass cases displaying objects from the Museum's collections. Lori Bettison-Varga, director of the museum calls it the museum's "curated facade". The plan aims to better connect the Natural History Museum to its neighbors in Exposition Park.

Renderings by Frederick Fisher and Partners Architects

New renderings released of the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

2017-07-03T12:10:00-04:00

It’s full speed ahead for the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the $1B museum sited in Exposition Park in Los Angeles and designed by Ma Yansong. Rising four stories, the 115-ft. tall building will house some 300,00 square feet of floor area containing exhibition space, a library, two theaters, classrooms, offices and a library. New renderings have been released. Take a gander below.

Image credit the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, via NBC

The George Lucas Museum has (finally) been given the green-light

2017-06-27T19:13:00-04:00

If the George Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is any indicator, the Bilbao effect is fast receding into distant memory. For a while, no city seemed to want it. The $1B project flirted with Chicago and San Francisco before finally finding a home in Los Angeles, which, in retrospect, seems perfectly fitting for a museum dedicated to “narrative art.” Now, at long last, the Los Angeles City Council has given final approval of the project and construction will proceed.

George Lucas and his wife Melody Hobson spoke in-person to the council, which gave unanimous support to the project. Groundbreaking is set for early next year, with a 36-month construction timeline and an opening in 2021. Alongside it’s (incredibly) steep price tag, the museum comes with a $400M endowment.

The museum is designed by Ma Yansong and will take up seven acres in Exposition Park.