New Vitality, Right in the Heart of L.A.

While controversy continues to surround the possible return of the National Football League to a new Coliseum in Los Angeles, Exposition Park is in the midst of a make-over of surprising scope.

The California Science Center, which opens Saturday, is an important gift to the city. As the first phase of an ambitious program, it will be a superb place for stimulating learning about science and industry. The new museum, with free admission, and the adjacent new 3-D Imax theater will be a magnet at the heart of the city, a “must see” destination.

The science center takes its place in Exposition Park adjacent to the rose garden but with its monumental new entrance facing south toward the Coliseum. The historic front wing of the Museum of Science and History has been restored and more elegantly forms the space for the rose garden with the Armory and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

The Science Center is but a part of the recently approved master plan for Exposition Park. This plan proposes the whole of Exposition Park as a greener place, a true park for the community and a place for recreational, cultural and intellectual pursuits. A corner park and promenade on Vermont Avenue are under construction. A science school is well along in a design that incorporates and brings new life to the Armory and to the northeast corner of the park.

Around the park, new private development is occurring along Vermont. An ambitious set of strategies developed to bring new vitality to the numerous districts along the Figueroa corridor will better connect Exposition Park to other major destinations, including the University of Southern California, the Convention Center and new Staples Arena and the heart of downtown.

The transformation of Exposition Park will make it not only an internationally recognized sports park and an events park, but also a local park serving the interests of extensive neighborhoods in its district and a cultural and educational park as home of the Science Center and Aerospace Hall, the Natural History Museum and the California Afro-American Museum. It is perfectly situated to bring people of different ethnic, cultural and economic groups next to each other. It is a civic center of truly important dimensions as it serves such a wide range of destinations for such a broad cross-section of our population.

Of course, this is the basic tradition and spirit of Exposition Park. It was meant for all of us from the beginning. The events of the Coliseum, from papal visits and Olympics, Dodgers and great college football and concerts and motocross have been for all of us. The rose garden has provided the setting for weddings and picnics and touring for all of us. The museums have taught all of us and our children about matters that are absolutely cross-cultural.

And so it continues. The opening of the California Science Center should be a moment of great pride for the region and the state. It is a gift to our lives, perfectly situated, continuing to develop. If the Coliseum becomes home to a new NFL franchise, that should be seen not as “saving the city,” but as jumping on the bandwagon.