La Brea Tar Pits Museum Expansion | AS+GG | World Design Awards 2024

AS+GG: Winner of World Design Awards 2024. World Within the World is a project that explores the past and present of La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles relative to its context and artifacts embedded in the site. Scientists began to discover these fossils in the early 20th century and have slowly developed into the Page Museum and Hancock Park. Today, the site is situated along Miracle Mile, and adjacent to multiple new developments, including LACMA and the Academy Museum. The site of the Tar Pits is neglected and overshadowed by its neighbors. It is bounded by a disturbing fence and exhibitions are buried under the soil. The mission of our project is to unravel the magnificence of the unique geological site and open up the museum to showcase the history that is buried. Our vision for the project is to create a journey that carries people from the present to the past, which is manifested in the sequence and atmosphere of the design.

The design frames the existing Page Museum with new light-filled exhibition spaces and a parametric canopy that extends over the new museum. The new museum interacts with the landscape through a pathway that leads the visitors across the site. Alongside the pathway, visitors can access the tar pits research field and enjoy the pre-historic land-scape. The new canopy also provide shade to the much needed Los Angeles climate. People can enjoy the refreshing breeze in the semi-outdoor atrium surrounded by exhibition halls that showcases fossils illuminated by the natural light.

The design aims to create a dialogue between the new building and the existing museum, the materiality of the new building and the texture of the fossil, the pattern of the canopy and the tectonic of the fossil bones…. these dialogues bring people from the present to the past.