New campus concepts for LA’s La Brea Tar Pits unveiled

LOS ANGELES – Three architect-led teams have unveiled conceptual approaches for reimagining the famed La Brea Tar Pits, an active Ice Age excavation site in the middle of Los Angeles.

The designs revealed Monday night will be reviewed by experts from a range of disciplines and public input will be considered before the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County chooses one firm by year’s end.

More than 400,000 people visit the Tar Pits annually, which have yielded millions of fossils including saber-toothed cats, dire wolf and mastodon skeletons, as well as samples of plants, small animals and insects that give insight into 50,000 years of history.

But it’s been more than 40 years since the Tar Pits’ George C. Page Museum was built, and officials determined it’s necessary to improve the visitor experience.