space center

The California Science Center announced Monday that construction has been completed on its new Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center, bringing the highly anticipated expansion one step closer to its public debut.

The culmination of a master project plan adopted in 1993, the sleek 20-story, 200,000-square-foot new building rising over Exposition Park will nearly double the museum’s exhibit space and anchor a $450-million campaign to permanently house the retired space shuttle Endeavour.

“I keep saying this, and it sounds cliché,” said Jeffrey Rudolph, the Science Center’s president and chief executive. “But it’s better than we ever dreamed.”

The Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center will be split into three galleries — air, space and shuttle — containing aerospace artifacts and hands-on exhibits demonstrating scientific principles.

At the heart of the new addition is Endeavour itself, displayed in a vertical “ready-to-launch” configuration that’s never been replicated with real hardware outside of a NASA or Air Force facility. The display includes rocket boosters from manufacturer Northrop Grumman and a massive external fuel tank from NASA.

Artifact installation is underway at the new Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

A veteran of 25 missions from 1992 to 2011, Endeavour arrived in L.A. in 2012 during a widely watched journey atop a modified Boeing 747, followed by a slow procession through city streets. For over a decade, the retired orbiter was exhibited horizontally in a temporary, tent-like structure known as the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion.

In early 2024, Angelenos watched as the shuttle was carefully lifted and placed into its final upright position in an intensive overnight operation.

With several observation areas spanning the nearly 200-foot tall shuttle stack, Rudolph said the new installation will offer visitors “views that almost no one’s ever seen.”

A cutting-edge building design by architectural firm ZGF Architects contributes to that awe-inspiring experience with a 2,000-ton curved structural framework of diagonally intersecting steel beams called a diagrid, which eliminates interior columns and allows visitors unobstructed views of the shuttle stack.

The idea is that “you don’t have a sense there’s a building at all,” said Ted Hyman, partner at ZGF Architects. Instead, you’re meant to feel like you’re standing on a launch pad outside. The dimness of the shuttle gallery also assists in the immersive fantasy, both as an artistic choice and a practical one due to the shuttle’s sensitivity to light.

Yet while the structure is designed to be undetectable from the inside, it’s a full-blown metallic colossus on the outside — visible from the surrounding L.A. freeways. Its colors are most magnificent at sunset.

When asked whether he’d had any doubts about the feasibility of the intricately choreographed construction project, Hyman replied, “I think up until about last week.”

Nonetheless, he said, “you forget about the challenges when you see the building done.”

Lynda Oschin, wife of the new air and space center’s titular philanthropist Samuel, called the project a “dream come true.”

“This space shuttle is everything rolled into one that my husband loved: astronomy, innovation, exploration, science, math and especially children,” Oschin said. “What this is going to do for the children is just incredible.”

The donor said her husband, whose picture is in the cockpit of the Endeavour, would have been very proud — if a little embarrassed — that his name is on the new building.

The Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center is 20 stories tall.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

With the construction phase in the rearview, Rudolph said the center is now focused on completing installation of the galleries’ artifacts and hands-on installations. The Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, which houses the Endeavour shuttle stack, is nearest to completion. In the two others, artifact installation is well underway.

The Korean Air Aviation Gallery explores the mechanics of flight and will display approximately 25 aircraft, from historical relics like the WWII “Vampire” jet to modern supersonic jet fighters. The Kent Kresa Space Gallery will feature a wide array of spacecraft, planetary probes, telescopes and more. Rudolph was especially excited about acquiring a SpaceX Cargo Dragon, which will further the air and space center’s goal to “show people that this isn’t all history.”

“There’s a lot of amazing things going on in aviation and space, and a lot of it happening in California,” the executive said.

The interactive installations complementing the artifacts include a 747 flight simulation and a 45-foot-long slide carrying visitors down to the bottom of the shuttle stack, which Rudolph himself has already ridden. His goal with these novelties was to both educate visitors about scientific principles and get children excited about the subject, which can get flattened in the traditional school system.

“Kids get turned off to science very early,” Rudolph said, but when they come to the science center, it’s like a whole new world opens up to them.

Rudolph said he expects to announce an opening date for the Samuel Oschin Air & Space Center this summer. He added that while it’s his intention to open by the 2028 L.A. Olympics, “we’re not really building this for a two-week athletic event.”

“We’re building this for the next 50 years to serve our community and inspire people,” he said.

As Rudolph made his way across the science center campus in March, he chuckled at the children bumping into him on their way to the exhibits.

“Future scientists, right?” he said.

This year marks a veritable museum-palooza as Los Angeles debuts four new major arts complexes, with three in the wings likely to open in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Immerse yourself in a psychedelic explosion at Meow Wolf, plan an afternoon liaison with Van Gogh at LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries, inhale the scent of nature inside Refik Anadol’s AI arts museum, Dataland, or simply geek out over George Lucas’ jaw-dropping collection of “Star Wars” memorabilia.

Whatever your arts craving may be, this astoundingly rich new lineup of new local museums has you covered.

LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries

The new David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, are composed entirely of Brutalist concrete.

(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s David Geffen Galleries are set to debut this April to members, before opening for general admission at the beginning of May. The $720-million Geffen Galleries will display 2,500-3,000 objects from LACMA’s collection.

The building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, is described by supporters as a “concrete sculpture” and will host 90 exhibition galleries across 110,000 square feet. The Wilshire Boulevard museum’s inaugural exhibition will organize artwork by the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea instead of by medium or period.

“The idea is for you to make your own path — not to speak at you, but to let you wander like you would through a park or a place,” LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan said in an interview with The Times. “That change in attitude, and how the building is built, is really exciting.”

Some of the most-anticipated works on display include Georges de La Tour’s “The Magdalen With the Smoking Flame” (1640), Henri Matisse’s “La Gerbe” (1953) and Vincent Van Gogh’s “Tarascon Stagecoach” (1888).

Lucas Museum of Narrative Art

The gardens at the Lucas Museum, designed by Studio-MLA, on Monday, May 19, 2025.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

After more than 10 years of anticipation, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s museum will open in Exposition Park this September. With over 10,000 square feet of galleries, the museum will feature a wide array of artwork and pop culture ephemera, including Lucas’ personal trove of “Star Wars” film franchise treasures, “Peanuts” comic strips, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” illustrations, a Richard Sargent painting and covers of the Saturday Evening Post.

Lucas donated his collection to curate the Lucas Archives, which, in addition to “Star Wars,” will encompass props and production art from Lucasfilm projects, such as the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

One of the museum’s defining features is its massive green-roof garden designed by Mia Lehrer and her landscape architecture firm Studio-MLA.

“This brings everything together,” Lehrer said in an interview with The Times. “Design, ecology, storytelling, infrastructure, community. It’s the fullest expression of what landscape can be.”

Meow Wolf

A work-in-progress piece set to be featured in Meow Wolf L.A. as seen during a walk through at the group’s warehouse in Santa Fe on Oct. 15, 2025.

(Gabriela Campos/For The Times)

Meow Wolf’s L.A. location will reimagine a ’90s movie theater with its takeover of the Cinemark at West L.A.’s Howard Hughes entertainment complex outside Culver City. Meow Wolf’s sixth permanent exhibition comes on the heels of the immersive art creator’s 52,000-square-foot psychedelic art installation in Las Vegas, which was disguised as a dystopian grocery store called Omega Mart and promptly went viral on TikTok.

Complete with sci-fi elements, a meditative space and a 30-foot-tall mushroom tower, Meow Wolf’s new location will open at the end of 2026. Although organizers have kept much of the exhibition under wraps, visitors can expect to be transfixed by a thoroughly Los Angeles tale.

“It’s cool that we’re creating a story about a pilgrimage, because L.A. is that for so many artists, especially people involved in storytelling,” Shakti Howeth, Meow Wolf‘s creative director, told The Times. “It’s one of those places that’s built on layers and layers of dreams, and we’re really exploring that here. Not only dreams but broken dreams — the compost that can happen when you digest broken dreams.”

Refik Anadol’s Dataland

Refik Anadol’s Infinity Room is meant to be a multisensory experience.

(Dataland)

Opening this spring at the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A., Dataland dubs itself the world’s first museum of AI arts. Turkish American artist Refik Anadol designed his own AI model, named the Large Nature Model, which only sources material with permission from original creators, making it what Anadol calls “ethical” AI. Partners include the Smithsonian and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

“I’m calling this new art form not AR, not VR, not XR — so we are still finding a name for it. The best name so far, and people love it, is generative reality,” Anadol told The Times.

Dataland will feature five galleries, including the Infinity Room, which Anadol first created in 2014 as a student at UCLA. In another exhibit, he trained an AI model on half a million scents and built a machine to push those scents into the gallery to create a totally immersive viewing experience.

Opening Later

The Armenian American Museum and Cultural Center of California

Slated to complete construction in downtown Glendale in late 2026, the 51,000-square-foot Armenian American Museum has been in the works for more than a decade. With a $67-million budget, the museum will include permanent and temporary exhibitions, as well as an auditorium, learning center, archives collection and a demonstration kitchen.

The museum is an initiative of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Committee Western US, and planning began as the group prepared to mark the the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in 2015. The museum is adorned with the 36 letters of the Armenian alphabet and a glass hazarashen skylight, inspired by traditional roofs in homes across the Armenian Highlands.

“The Armenian American Museum was once an idea, then a vision, and today is rising before our eyes,” museum Executive Chairman Berdj Karapetian said in a statement. “This progress is the result of an extraordinary collective effort by Armenians and non-Armenians here in California, across the United States and around the world.”

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles is a major expansion of the California Science Center.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

A solid opening date has not yet been announced, but the $400-million Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at the California Science Center in Exposition Park is busily preparing for liftoff. Construction on the building began in 2022. The shiny new building will be home to the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, Kent Kresa Space Gallery and the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, which will host the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Endeavour will be displayed in launch position, making it the tallest authentic spacecraft displayed vertically in the world, with a height of 20 stories. One of three surviving space shuttles, Endeavour made 25 successful missions into space.

The center is also expected to have 20 planes and jets, including a Boeing 747, a mock flight deck and a pair of introductory films produced by J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot, one of which will end with a simulated launch.

“It is an amazing experience, and we want to really build it up,” Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president and chief executive of the California Science Center, told The Times. “It’s not just about the hardware but about the people and the educational aspects.”

The Broad Expansion

Exterior rendering of the future Broad expansion from Hope Street.

(The Broad. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R))

Opening in 2028, the Broad expansion will contain 70% more gallery space, two outdoor courtyards, a live programming space and views of the museum’s art storage vault. First announced in 2024, the $100-million addition is slated for completion before the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Located in downtown L.A., the expansion was deemed necessary after the museum significantly exceeded visitor projections. The new building will invert the existing Broad museum’s architectural design, with a smooth, gray structure attached to the original construction.

“The idea is that it adds new facets to the visitor’s journey through the expanded Broad,” said Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of the Broad, in an interview with The Times. “In a way, the existing building is always sort of talking to you. And there will be a similar thing happening with the expansion, but just a slightly different conversation, like you’re listening to its sibling.”