Children’s Museum May Expand to Include Mall

A proposal that would vastly expand the small, crowded Los Angeles Children’s Museum and transform the troubled Civic Center mall secured official endorsements Friday from Mayor Tom Bradley and Councilman Gilbert Lindsay.

Bradley and Lindsay, whose district includes the downtown museum, said they will urge the City Council to grant museum officials six months to develop a plan in which they would take over management of the mall and seek private financial commitments expected to exceed $20 million.

Museum officials say it will take at least that much money to achieve their goal: five-fold expansion of the museum’s space that would potentially accommodate a million visitors a year, according to Richard Reinis, museum president. It would become, Reinis declared, “the finest children’s museum in the world.”

Officials view the proposal as a cultural complement to such downtown attractions as the expanding Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Olvera Street, Chinatown and Little Tokyo.

“This is an idea we simply cannot turn down. It’s too great a possibility for the history of this city,” Bradley said in a press conference outside the museum’s front door.

During the six-month study period, the city would place a moratorium on the leasing of space in the two-block Los Angeles Mall, a subterranean row of restaurants, shops and financial services that cater primarily to Civic Center workers. The museum says it needs the moratorium to develop plans for the mall space.

The ultimate goal is for the museum’s existing 15,000-square-foot quarters on the north block of the mall to grow to more than 80,000 square feet, including more exhibits and a children’s theater.

The street-level plaza would be redesigned as a playground, with the defunct Triforium musical tower revived as its centerpiece. The museum draws 270,000 visitors a year, making it one of the most densely used in the United States.

Restaurants and shops serving downtown workers would be centralized on the southern block, officials said.