La Brea Tar Pits passes major hurdle; green space, birds at risk
RENDERING shows a view from the land bridge. Courtesy of NHMLAC
Plans to reshape the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum came closer to reality last month, when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) on Feb. 4.
The master plan for the project offers a new vision and expansion of the Ice Age fossil site — the world’s largest active paleontological dig in an urban center.
The new design will accommodate an additional 800,000 visitors annually — up from the 400,000 students, tourists and others who visit the 13-acre La Brea Tar Pits today.
It rests on the 23-acre park donated to the community by George Allan Hancock in 1924.
So far, a total of $22 million has been allotted for the proposed project, and fundraising is underway at the site at 5801 Wilshire Blvd.
“The certification of the EIR was a significant step forward for the project, and we hope to be able to share a concrete timeline for construction soon,” said museum spokesperson Amy Hood. “La Brea Tar Pits is one of L.A.’s most iconic destinations, and we plan to be able to welcome visitors to L.A. during the 2028 Olympics. Construction timing will take this into consideration.”
TAR PITS are located behind the May Co. department store, as seen in this 1940 photo. Photo courtesy of Ann Rubin
New York-based Weiss / Manfredi’s design includes renovating the existing museum, built in 1977 as the George C. Page Museum, and construction of a two-story, 40,000-square-foot building with two theaters.
When the La Brea Tar Pits Loops and Lenses, Master Plan and Concept Design opens, scientists and visitors of all ages will be able to step back in time — way back — to learn about the last major episode of global climate change and to consider possible solutions for our own time, museum officials say.
But much of what people like about the expansive park — open green space, its many trees and serving as a migratory stop for birds — will be removed, according to opponents of the project.
The Miracle Mile Residential Association (MMRA) has been in lock step with the Audubon Society in opposition of the new design since it was first presented for its endangerment to birds and other wildlife, demolition of 200 trees and loss of open space.
“The city is starved for open space, and [people] don’t need to be hectored with [climate change or] any kind of message,” said Greg Goldin, MMRA president.
Travis Longcore, president of the Los Angeles Audubon Society, added, “The final EIR corrected some factual deficiencies in response to our comments. Walls of glass, glass railings and extensive night lighting, all of which would be lethal for birds, would not be in the final design.
“But they have not backed off their unfortunate plans to cut a large number of the trees remaining in the park, which is made even worse by the tree losses from other projects in the last decade.”
Some 330 trees are rooted in the park site. Under the proposal, 200 would be removed and replaced.
SITE PLAN of the La Brea Tar Pits Loops and Lenses, Master Plan and Concept Design. Renderings courtesy of NHMLAC
“We plan to replace more trees than the number removed, and the new trees will be native species better suited to the climate,” said Hood.
Many of the public comments during the environmental review process were about the trees, said Ann Rubin, a Carthay Circle resident who has long worked to save the open-space park and its beloved trees.
She questions who is looking at the overall development of the block and the Mile as a whole, with several high-rise developments in the works.These include the 42-story Mirabel; Onni Group’s 708 Cloverdale Projects set to reach 43-stories; Onni’s Wilshire Courtyard’s two buildings, (35- and 41-stories); and the Metro construction of two subway stops along Wilshire Boulevard. There is also expansion underway at the Holocaust Museum LA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the new Academy Museum opened a few years ago.
“That’s the real concern for us. The daily grind of out-of-scale developments. We’re overwhelmed,” said Goldin. “The MMRA has always welcomed the general notion of the park and museum expanding to accommodate the people who visit. It’s a big attraction. People love the museum. We’ve always wanted to see the museum thrive.”
Built over seven years
The La Brea Tar Pits project is expected to be built in phases over seven years. It’s next door to the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, expected to open in 2026.
In a 2023 letter to the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, Longcore wrote, “The La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum are important cultural and scientific institutions that educate the public about the history of the region. The insights from the excavations and associated research are vitally important and inform much of what we know about the paleohistory of birds in this region. The park and museum complex is also a unique site in that it has areas that have never been developed to urban uses, including vegetation that could well be over 100 years old.
“This project, in combination with the overdevelopment of the remainder of the site by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, represents one more step toward the total replacement of the remaining bits of open, undeveloped space with buildings, active programming and sterilized landscape. Where will the nature persist after cutting down 200 trees? How will the ecological contiguity of land be maintained? People and wildlife need parks with fewer buildings, not more.”
Plan elements
Besides renovation of the existing museum and construction of a new two-story, 40,000-square-foot building, other key elements of the plan include a new pedestrian bridge to take visitors across Lake Pit, where iconic mammoth sculptures have lounged for decades. In addition, 7.3 acres of renovated park space will feature picnic and play areas.
Inside, visitors will be able to peek into a glass-enclosed Fossil Lab to see ongoing discoveries and the extensive collections. Exhibition space will increase by 20 percent. Animal images will be projected at night on the new building’s windows.
Fossil remains of saber-tooth cats, giant sloths, dire wolves and other Ice Age animals who walked the grounds here millenia ago — before being pulled into the sticky tar below — will be featured in the new exhibition building.
Shade will be added at the existing outdoor classroom and fossil dig at Pit 91, where visitors will be able to see sticky asphalt oozing up from the ground below while watching scientists work in real time.
AERIAL VIEW rendering of the central lawn during the evening at the La Brea Tar Pits site.
More shade is planned to welcome visitors at the entry plaza at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Curson Avenue, which also will feature an Ice Age-era Pleistocene garden. A second entryway on Sixth Street will be for school groups. Native plantings that support local wildlife and birdwatching areas will be in the park. A rooftop café and “Tar Bar” will offer refreshments and views.
“The site is a gateway to the Ice Age, and it is right on our doorstep,” Lori Bettison-Varga, president of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, told us when the project was first announced in 2023. “It gives us a very good glimpse into the last global climate change episode — understanding what happened back then, 10,000 to 50,000 years ago.”
Visit tarpits.org/reimagine.
Category: News
