Emerging From Darkness

Griffith Observatory's $83 Million Renovation Heading Home

Visitors to the reincarnated icon in Los Angeles will be treated to nearly 40,000 sq. ft. of new exhibits. Contractors have been taxed by the site's steep slope, but the project is still on schedule for completion in spring 2006.

By Greg Aragon

The Griffith Observatory, a 71-year-old Los Angeles landmark, closed its doors in June 2002 and began an $83 million renovation and expansion. S.J. Amoroso Construction Co., the project's general contractor, is overseeing a job that includes 28,000 sq. ft. of renovation. Construction crews also are doubling the size of the observatory by adding more than 39,000 sq. ft. of exhibit and presentation space-all without changing the classic appearance of the building (photo by Greg Aragon).

In a little more than a year, the historic Griffith Observatory atop Mount Hollywood in Los Angeles will reopen and again welcome serious stargazers.

Faced with outdated technology, structural damage from the Northridge earthquake 11 years ago and insufficient space to accommodate an estimated 2 million visitors a year, the 71-year-old Los Angeles landmark closed its doors in June 2002 and began an $83 million renovation and expansion.

One of the observatory's biggest fans is "Star Trek" actor Leonard Nimoy, who, along with his wife, Susan, donated $1 million to help beam the institution into the 21st Century. In honor of their gift, the observatory named its new presentation hall the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theatre.

"By observing the sky and pondering our place in the universe, people gain a new perspective on their daily lives," Nimoy said when the project broke ground in October 2002.

Work on interior finishes, lighting installation and HVAC is underway, and construction should be finished in a couple of months. Then the yearlong process of installing the new exhibits will begin.

The Griffith Observatory is owned by the city of Los Angeles and operated by the Los Angeles Bureau of Parks and Recreation. The project's historic preservation architect is Los Angeles-based Levin & Associates.

Originally designed in a Moderne/Art Deco style by architects Austin and Ashley, the observatory was not significantly upgraded since it opened in 1935.

Redwood Shores-based S.J. Amoroso Construction Co., the project's general contractor, is overseeing a job that includes 28,000 sq. ft. of renovation. Virtually every element and system of the observatory will be restored to its original grandeur.

Construction crews are also doubling the size of the observatory by adding more than 39,000 sq. ft. of exhibit and presentation space-all without changing the classic appearance of the building.

The mission is being accomplished by excavating under a portion of the front lawn and western terrace.

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Stephen Johnson, a principal with Santa Monica-based Pfeiffer Partners, the project's design and executive architect, said that through community meetings and his company's "own sensibilities," he learned that the public was so content with the structure's old façade that dramatic changes to its appearance were not welcome.

The architects' plans took the project underground, where they created the "Depths of Space," a 32,000-sq.-ft. subterranean area below the observatory's front lawn. Depths of Space includes exhibits; offices; classrooms; a café and gift shop; and the proscenium arch-styled Nimoy theater, a 200-seat, 2,700-sq.-ft. all-purpose auditorium.

When guests leave the Horizon Theatre, they will pass a "massive dark chasm of the universe," called the "Big Picture."

The 150-ft.-long by 20-ft.-tall wall features a baked-on, high-resolution photographic image of the distant night sky magnified hundreds of times. Taken by California astronomer George Djorgovsky, the $1 million Big Picture wall will take one year to complete and consist of more than 100 4-ft.-by-8-ft. porcelain panels, similar to the kind used on the Getty Center.

"It's a photograph that has never been seen before that is very difficult to produce with an enormous amount of visual data," said Jonathan Alger, principal-in-charge with New York-based Chermayeff and Geismar, the project's exhibit designers.

Alger said to get this kind of extra-strength process to accept a photograph -not just one color, but four-is difficult and requires the production of many oven-baked prototype samples. He added that options other than porcelain enamel were considered, but none were sufficiently permanent.

"We considered using an enormous amount of plastic film or glass that could be rear-illuminated, but the intention here was to create something extremely permanent and durable," added Alger, whose company planned and designed all 20,000 sq. ft. of the observatory's new exhibits. "People can touch [the wall] and it will wipe clean."

Larry Gonsalves, project manager for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, said it was tricky building the observatory's mechanical plant on an existing slope gradient of approximately 1:1.

Larry Gonsalves, project manager for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering, said it was tricky building the observatory's mechanical plant on an existing slope gradient of approximately 1:1 (photo by Greg Aragon).

"The stepped footings were continuously monitored by the project geologist to ensure soil stability and worker safety," Gonsalves said. "The deepest footing was 57-ft. below grade, and was constructed utilizing the open-cut method (no shoring). Due to various undulating, non-active fault lines and the different soils encountered, the design team wondered if a hillside structure completely on piles would have been easier to construct.

"However, once we committed to mass excavation, there was no turning back."

Connecting the expansion to the renovated original planetarium building is a 50-ft.-long tunnel called the "Wormhole."

From the Depths of Space, the Wormhole leads to the 306-seat Planetarium Theater, which has been upgraded with state-of-the-art technology, a new all-dome laser projection system and a $3 million Zeiss Mark IX sky projector.

The German-made projector-dubbed an original virtual-reality machine-replicates the night sky with thousands of light holes projected onto a dome.

The observatory's previous planetarium projector was installed in 1964 and many of its aging parts are no longer available. When the observatory reopens, the old Zeiss projector will be put on display in the new museum as an important historical artifact.