LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHM) today announces the creation of the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research at La Brea Tar Pits, marking a major step in the multi-year transformation of the world-famous site. Made possible by a major leading philanthropic gift from the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation – the largest in the history of NHM – this new world-class research center advances a comprehensive reimagining of the Tar Pits’ campus that will further cement it as a global destination for scientific research, education, and public engagement.

With the extraordinary generosity of the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, NHM has now raised $131 million in pledges toward the $240 million goal of the Reimagining La Brea Tar Pits Campaign.

More than a building, the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research will be a research-and program-driven entity woven throughout the Tar Pits campus and scientific work. Through international research partnerships, educational initiatives, and digital platforms, the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research will enable La Brea Tar Pits to better share discoveries, support collaboration, and position Los Angeles as a global hub for scientific discovery that is relevant to how we live both today and in the future.

“There is no place on Earth like La Brea Tar Pits. It is fitting to honor my husband Samuel Oschin’s legacy by supporting science and research in the heart of Los Angeles, a city he helped to develop and shape,” said Lynda Oschin, Chairman of the Board and Secretary of the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation. “Sam and I started the foundation in order to inspire future generations by supporting organizations that deepen our understanding of the world around us. Through this work, I know the lessons of Ice Age Los Angeles will inspire countless scientists and young students here and globally.”

The Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research will support NHM’s broader goals for the complete transformation of the Tar Pits’ 13-acre site, which has not been renovated or considered comprehensively in the half-century since the museum opened in 1977. Led by architecture firm WEISS/MANFREDI, the capital project will create a more integrated experience of both the museum and the landscape in Hancock Park.

Today, NHM is also unveiling new renderings of the transformation. The design’s new, 1-kilometer triple pedestrian loop connects active excavation sites, research and exhibition spaces, and central green into a single, continuous experience. Iconic features such as the museum’s historic frieze and beloved grass slopes are preserved and expanded while improving research and exhibition spaces, increasing community access, and creating a newly sustainable infrastructure.

The new museum entrance and tapered gallery window frame views into the museum from the central green, while the renovated research labs, education spaces, and exhibition galleries bring close connections between science and discovery. The ascending crescent of sloped walkways introduces accessible routes to the park’s beloved grass slopes, providing universal access to a roof terrace with views of the museum’s historic frieze and the Tar Pits Campus. New Pleistocene gardens at the Wilshire Boulevard entry and within the museum courtyard connect the landscape and ecology to the Ice Age history of the site.

“The Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research marks a critical milestone for the future of La Brea Tar Pits,” said Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, President and Director of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County. “The Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation's transformational gift allows us to amplify the research that has always been at the heart of the Tar Pits, and to more fully integrate it into a revitalized and modernized campus that connects science, landscape, education, and community in powerful new ways. With cutting-edge research as its core mission, the reimagined Tar Pits will be one of the most consequential scientific and cultural sites in the world.”

The La Brea Tar Pits project will tell the story of Los Angeles’ Ice Age past, when mammoths and dire wolves roamed the landscape, connecting the research and science that takes place at the site with the visitor experience. Amsterdam-based design studio Kossmanndejong (KDJ) is leading the design of the exhibition spaces and outdoor experiences to create a narrative journey that activates the Ice Age collections with immersive installations and interactive experiences.

“As we all endure the effects of a changing planet, there has seldom been a more important time to expand opportunities to discover our natural world. This generous support helps make that possible for countless Los Angeles County residents through the transformation of the La Brea Tar Pits—one of the world’s most important geologic sites,” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. “This project prioritizes the creation of accessible educational facilities, providing world-class learning opportunities for our communities and future scientists and civic leaders.”

The Transformation

La Brea Tar Pits is the richest Ice Age fossil site on Earth, and a repository of millions of fossils, comprising hundreds of species of plants and animals. From the park to the exhibition spaces to research and collection facilities, the transformation of the site will tell the story of Los Angeles at the end of the Ice Age and how that helps us better understand our current ecological context and our shared future.

To transform La Brea Tar Pits, the world-renowned architecture and design firm of WEISS/MANFREDI was chosen through a global competition with community involvement. Supported by Executive Architect and Landscape Architect Gruen Associates, the reimagined museum includes state-of-the-art labs and exhibition halls, indoor/outdoor educational spaces, and a 13-acre park with gardens planted with native Ice Age plants, which will revolutionize our storytelling to reflect the scientific work that can only be done at this unique place.

A new 1-kilometer looping pedestrian walkway will weave past the famous Lake Pit on Wilshire Boulevard, with its well-known mammoth family, to the bubbling tar pits and excavation sites and through gardens planted with historical species to tell the story of the Tar Pits from prehistoric time to our contemporary moment. There will be new outdoor classrooms to share discoveries in real-time and modernized visible fossil labs to offer visitors a peek into the active research taking place in the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research. "The plan brings research and collection facilities and science instrumentation up to state-of-the-art standards."

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.

History of the Tar Pits Campus

The only active paleontological research site in the world that is located in a major urban area, La Brea Tar Pits is situated within the eastern portion of Hancock Park in Los Angeles’s Miracle Mile district. Since research began in 1875, the Tar Pits have yielded millions of samples, including saber-toothed cats, dire wolf and mastodon skeletons, innumerable plants, small rodents, and insects, and new discoveries are made daily in open-air excavations. These collections constitute an unparalleled resource for understanding environmental change in Los Angeles and the planet, during the last 60,000 years of Earth’s history.

The George C. Page Museum, designed by Los Angeles architects Frank Thornton and Willis Fagan, opened in 1977. Burrowed into the earth to preserve as much of the landscape as possible, it has sloping, grass-covered exterior walls, which are a beloved feature of Hancock Park, and is surmounted by a 10-foot-high, 4-sided fiberglass frieze of Ice Age landscapes, plants, and mammals, created by the sculptor Manuel Paz. The 57,000-square-foot museum has more than 3.5 million specimens in its collection.

In addition to the museum and Tar Pits, where excavation continues daily, the campus includes a Pleistocene landscape and shady green space on one of the most densely populated streets in the city.

La Brea Tar Pits was one of the first National Natural Landmarks designated by the Department of the Interior on March 7, 1964. Alongside six other locations, Rancho La Brea was deemed significant due to its “natural quality and character, degree of dissimilarity to other sites, importance to education and science, reasonable invulnerability to deterioration and destruction, practicable size, availability and accessibility, and sympathetic and responsible ownership.” In October 2022, the Tar Pits was named one of the first 100 global Geological Heritage Sites by the International Union of Geological Sciences, a leading organization of Earth scientists. It was the only urban site and one of just seven North American honorees.

Campaign to Reimagine La Brea Tar Pits

This bold $240 million campaign comes at an important moment. A reimagined La Brea Tar Pits will complete Hancock Park’s evolution into a major, must-see destination and ensure that La Brea Tar Pits’ invaluable resources are not only shared widely but stewarded and protected for future generations.

To date, $131 million has been raised – 55% of the project goal of $240 million. This includes the transformational gift from the Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Oschin Family Foundation, lead support from Los Angeles County, the State of California, NHM‘s Board of Trustees, Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District, and other generous donors, including the Ahmanson Foundation, Joan Payden, and the Perlstein Family. Fundraising efforts are now focused on securing the funds necessary to break ground and position the project for completion in time for the Olympics in 2028.