Are-invigorated Natural History Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles County will welcome the public this weekend in celebration of its centennial year and the two newest elements of its $135 million, 12-year overhaul. Taking a cue from the city’s modernist architecture, the museum blurs the line between indoors and out with the debut of the Otis Booth Pavilion and a 3.5-acre “Nature Garden.” The final two pieces of the museum’s transformation—a new 14,000-square-foot permanent exhibition space and renovated galleries for temporary exhibitions—will be complete later this year.
Designed by CO Architects, the Otis Booth Pavilion is a six-story glass entrance space made of 144, 9-by-11-foot panes. Each pane was laminated together to withstand earthquakes. “It’s a new front door for the museum that really becomes something like a connective tissue to the outside and inside,” says Fabian Kremkus, associate principal at CO Architects. A 63-foot fin whale skeleton is suspended within this daylight-filled cube, as if in the middle of a dive. A sound system attached to the glass emits a low-frequency whale song. And when activated, 33,600 LED lights simulate water undulations or animals in action.
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