The Wall Street Journal profiles the upcoming $240 million renovation of the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum, the first major update to the 13-acre site since it opened to the public in 1977. The article centers on Zed, a roughly 40,000-year-old Columbian mammoth with 80% of his bones intact, who will be displayed fully for the first time as part of the reopening. Discovered in 2006 during construction of an underground parking garage next door at LACMA, Zed will be mounted in an active display alongside a composite rival mammoth built from bones recovered from the tar pits.
The renovation will introduce new exhibits, looping trails, a rooftop terrace, and the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, with a Pleistocene garden along the Wilshire Boulevard entry. NHMLAC director Lori Bettison-Varga tells the WSJ the new exhibits will broaden visitors' understanding of the Ice Age ecosystem beyond the large-mammal displays that have anchored the museum for decades, with greater attention to the roughly 600 species of plants and animals found in the pits and the survivors that adapted as the Ice Age ended. The reopening is timed to coincide with Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics.
WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is the Design Lead, Museum and Park, for the La Brea Tar Pits project. GRUEN ASSOCIATES is the Executive Architect and Landscape Architect. Exhibition Design is being created by Kossmanndejong (KDJ). Landmark PM is the Owner's Representative and Project Manager. The General Contractor is Clark Construction Group – California, LP.