Backers Seeing Double for Children’s Museum

Torn among half a dozen competing sites, a group of Los Angeles Children’s Museum backers proposed Monday to build two museums--one in the northeast San Fernando Valley, the other downtown--to replace the existing downtown facility.

By creating new venues at Hansen Dam and in the Arts Park area near Little Tokyo, the organization will have a landmark opportunity to make its programs more accessible to Los Angeles’ children, said Doug Ring, chairman of the museum’s board of trustees.

“If we put the Children’s Museum just at Hansen Dam, we will be disenfranchising the children of East Los Angeles and South-Central Los Angeles, which is not something I am willing to do,” Ring said. “If we just put it at the Arts Park, the San Fernando Valley will feel we turned our backs on them. This is hopefully a compromise which permits everyone to come away feeling good.”

Ring said that while the board still has to decide the size of the museums, each would be larger than the current facility near City Hall, but probably smaller than the 80,000 square feet originally envisioned for a single replacement.

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The two facilities combined likely will cost more than the $9 million in city funding and $1 million in state funding available, Ring said, expressing confidence that the gap would be filled by state, federal and private fund-raising sources.

Joined by several city, state and federal officials, Ring said he plans to submit the plan to the museum board of trustees on May 16, and will also seek the support of the City Council and Parks Commission before the proposal is finalized.

Board members on Monday were receptive to the idea, which also drew support from formerly competing public officials, including City Council members Rita Walters and Alex Padilla.

Padilla had argued that his northeast Valley district deserved to host the museum because the area’s young people have historically been underserved, but Walters feared losing the museum from its location downtown to an area of the city not as easily reached by children from low-income families in South and Central Los Angeles.

“I’m pleased that the Children’s Museum has two new sites to call home,” Padilla said. “This is absolutely great news. It means that kids throughout the San Fernando Valley will have more access to educational and cultural resources.”

The councilman said building the museum on the southeast corner of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street would put it near a proposed new city library and recreational facilities.

Walters said the compromise would also not deprive her constituents.

“I am extremely pleased with the museum’s consideration of this proposal and happy that one of the campuses will remain in the heart of downtown--where it began 20 years ago,” Walters said.

The current museum provides hands-on education exhibits and programs involving science and history, but at 17,000 square feet is considered inadequate for the 250,000 children who visit annually.

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City officials have provided the museum with $9 million in park bond money to build new facilities, but a site must be secured in the next month or the funding will lapse.

The museum board originally proposed an 80,000-square-foot museum in Griffith Park, but a legal challenge by homeowners and environmentalists caused the board to look elsewhere.

Neighbors of Hansen Dam who had opposed the site voiced disappointment Monday that it has become a focus of the museum backers.

“There are still concerns,” said Bill Eick, president of the Shadow Hills Homeowners Assn., about the proposal for two museums. “Traffic is just going to choke the area.”

Ron Gastelum, a member of the museum board, said he is open to the idea, but said the city still has to certify that building the museum at the two sites will not cause significant negative impacts on the surrounding environment.

The proposal is also a big setback for Councilman Joel Wachs, who had hoped the museum could be the anchor for new development around the North Hollywood subway station opening next month.

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Wachs has not given up on trying to persuade the museum board to put the museum in North Hollywood, an aide said.

Ring, however, was joined Monday by several influential politicians in backing the two-museum idea, including Rep. Howard Berman (D-Mission Hills) and Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), who offered to provide federal and state help to make the projects happen.

Hertzberg is seeking $2 million to $5 million in this year’s state budget for the projects, an aide said.

Ring said the two new venues would not be identical, and expressed hope that their offerings could be expanded to appeal to more than just the under-12 crowd that has been the museum’s traditional clientele.

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Museum Proposals

Two Children’s Museums have been proposed, one in Lake View Terrace and a second in Los Angeles.