NHM Next Project - North Campus | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

North Campus

A Living, Breathing Habitat for L.A.’s Wild Things

Natural history museums are usually indoor experiences where plants and animals, often those of years past, are preserved. But soon NHM will become a place where the nature of right now — the scrappy, endlessly diverse biodiversity of Los Angeles — can also be observed.

By 2013, three and a half acres on the Museum’s north side will come alive — reclaimed from black parking lots and bland asphalt expanses. This new living habitat will be connected to the building in two ways: by the sunny new three-story entrance area, the Otis Booth Pavilion, and by the scientific activity hub called the Nature Lab. 

Inside the Museum, as always, visitors can learn how scientists study and interpret nature. In the dioramas they’ll see three-dimensional snapshots of other countries and other times. In the Nature Lab, they’ll meet rescued live animals and specimens. But outside, they can get up close and personal with birds, butterflies, and other animals. They can help our scientists track known species, and discover new ones. Or they can do nothing at all — just sit and relax in a pocket of nature nestled in the middle of the city.  

The City's Backyard

Though the area has been described as “learning gardens,” the Museum’s North Campus planning team has always been a little leery of the phrase. Gardens can mean manicured rows of plants that aren’t animal-friendly. The North Campus is going to be lush and frankly, a little wild. “It’s an oasis on the Museum’s grounds, and inside it, we’ll see how science is done in a field station atmosphere,” says Dr. Brian Brown, lead curator on the project.

Though the design team is planting to attract animals, there is already a surprising amount of biodiversity in Exposition Park. NHM Ornithology Collections Manager Kimball Garrett has been tracking birds in the area for 28 years (he’s recorded 162 species so far). He expects a variety: Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, Black Phoebes near the pond, Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds in the Pollinator Garden, and flocks of noisy little Bushtits darting through the shrubs and trees.

Amid the nature, the team is planning community science activities that bring scientists and visitors together on projects: They’ll find and chart butterfly and bird species, learn how pill bugs shred leaves and help make soil, and observe the different stages of pollination. The North Campus gives the Museum scientists a unique chance to develop a timeline of biological change as the habitat develops at a site. They’ll be able to compile data through time — what scientists call longitudinal data. And the North Campus programming — tours, talks, and community science activities — will help us get it.

“What people learn is going to apply to every park and backyard they go to,” says Dr. Karen Wise, VP of Education and Exhibits. “It’s about the biodiversity around us — its composition, trends, the stories behind it, and why it matters. Trust me, once you learn the story of the European house sparrow, your whole life in L.A. will be different. After you’ve been in the North Campus, you will see your wild L.A. neighbors in a new way.

Highlights

• With habitats of butterflies, birds, bugs, and plants, the outdoor exhibits will be activated as a living laboratory — a place where Angelenos will partner with Museum scientists on public science projects.
• The North Campus transforms the Museum into an indoor/outdoor institution, and allows us to enter a new dimension of programming. Tours, demonstrations, and performances can now unfold outside!
• After they explore the habitats at the Museum, we will have the capacity to train our visitors to create similar wildlife habitat in school yards, backyards, vacant lots, community gardens and even porches.
• Together, visitors and Museum staff will inventory plants and animals, but the investigations won’t end when visitors leave the Museum. Staff will post lists and images of species on photo walls onsite and online.

What’s Outside?