The $13 million gift from the Los Angeles-based private foundation, is the largest private gift dedicated to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park in its nearly century-long history. The amount will enable NHM to provide a focal point for the major new public approach to the museum, through the landscaped North Campus.
Named the Otis Booth Pavilion in honour of Otis Booth’s service to the museum and the unprecedented donation, the light-filled, three-storey entrance will be connected to Exposition Boulevard by a soaring pedestrian bridge and will dramatically showcase one of the museum’s signature specimens: its magnificent 63ft-long fin whale.
First exhibited at NHM in 1944, the 7,000-pound specimen was recently the subject of an intense two-year restoration and has been re-articulated to give an accurate and life-like impression of the grace and power of a whale in the midst of a dive. This remarkable image will now be visible to all from the Exposition Boulevard side of the Museum as a sign of the wonders within—and the gentle glow of its surrounding glass structure will be visible at night from as far away as Downtown.
Designed for the museum by CO Architects in association with Cordell Corporation, the Otis Booth Pavilion will be designed to express the mission of the new North Campus—and of NHM as a whole—by bringing a great natural treasure out of the shadows and into the light of day.
The 3.5 acres of urban wilderness experiences and exhibits of the North Campus, to be completed throughout 2011 and 2012, are a new nature destination in the heart of Los Angeles, and a new front yard and approach to the museum, directly served by two Metro Expo Line stops. In this way, the North Campus connects NHM with the ongoing life of the city, and merges the visitor’s experience of natural habitats outside the Museum with the experience of the superb collection within. The Otis Booth Pavilion symbolizes this connection by making a major specimen visible to the outdoors, and also helps to realize the connection programmatically by serving as the ground-floor passage between the North Campus gardens and the Museum’s upcoming Nature Lab.
The Otis Booth Foundation is a legacy of Franklin Otis Booth, Jr. (1923-2008), the great-grandson of General Harrison Gray Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times. In 1972, he was voted onto the museum’s Board of Governors by County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn. Booth went on to serve as a Trustee and a Trustee Emeritus.
The Natural History Museum is currently in the midst of a six-year, institution-wide transformation. The museum’s $135 million NHM Next Campaign is funding this transformation through generous public and private contributions totalling $84 million to date. The Otis Booth Foundation donation was made outside of the current campaign, in order to fund a crucial capital project that was not a part of the NHM Next budget: an entrance pavilion on the north side of the museum, to bring the North Campus into dramatic focus.
Design and construction of the entrance pavilion, which would have been realized through a later phase of NHM’s transformation, will now be accomplished years ahead of schedule. The Otis Booth Pavilion is scheduled for completion by November 2013, in time for the celebration of the Natural History Museum’s 100th anniversary.
