ArchDaily covers the release of updated renderings from WEISS/MANFREDI for the comprehensive transformation of La Brea Tar Pits, alongside the announcement of the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, supported by the Samuel Oschin Family Foundation. The redesign integrates the museum, landscape, and active excavation areas into a continuous public and research-oriented campus, with WEISS/MANFREDI as design lead, Gruen Associates as executive architect and landscape architect, Kossmanndejong leading exhibition design, and Landmark PM leading the overall project as the owner's representative and project manager.
The article details the project's "Loops and Lenses" strategy, anchored by a one-kilometer accessible pedestrian loop linking the museum, dig sites, and central green. The renovated George C. Page Museum, originally opened in 1977, will gain a new entrance facing Wilshire Boulevard, reconfigured galleries, visible fossil preparation laboratories, and centralized collections storage. The redesign doubles accessible outdoor areas, introduces a 28,000-square-foot civic lawn, and incorporates Pleistocene gardens, an amphitheater, and rooftop promenade. Sustainability measures include low-embodied-carbon materials, all-electric building systems, bird-safe glazing, and on-site stormwater biofiltration. Completion is targeted ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.