Rendering showing the inside of the visitor center proposed near the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro. (Rendering Courtesy of Pacific Battleship Center)
The proposed visitor center adjacent to Battleship Iowa in San Pedro. (Rendering Courtesy of Pacific Battleship Center)
Rendering of proposed dockside development to be built next to the Battleship Iowa at the Port of Los Angeles, Berths 87-89, in San Pedro. (Image Courtesy of Battleship Iowa Museum)
Rendering of proposed landslide development next to the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro at the Port of Los Angeles. (Image Courtesy of Battleship Iowa Museum)
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Rendering showing the inside of the visitor center proposed near the Battleship Iowa in San Pedro. (Rendering Courtesy of Pacific Battleship Center)
The Los Angeles harbor commission approved a coastal permit on Thursday, Jan. 29, that will usher in the long-awaited construction on a dockside development by the Battleship Iowa Museum in San Pedro.
The Freedom of the Seas Park and Pavilion at Port of Los Angeles Berth 87 — next to the World War II battleship, 250 S. Harbor Blvd., which is also the National Museum of the Surface Navy — will include a 17,161 square-foot visitor center and some 50,000 square feet of adjacent park space. The project is expected to cost $6.7 million (paid for by the battleship museum, which also received a grant from the California Natural Resources Agency) and is anticipated to break ground in the next of couple months. Completion is expected sometime in 2027.
The proposed development will include:
The multipurpose visitor center and park space.
Community gathering areas.
Educational exhibits.
Veterans memorials of local, state and national significance.
Maritime equipment displays.
A restaurant and bar.
Public art.
A children’s play area.
The landside plans have always been part of the long-term vision for the museum ship, at Berths 87-89, since it docked in San Pedro in 2012.
The visitor center and park that will be built alongside the Battleship Iowa at Berth 87 have gone through modifications after it was determined that the project would require pilings. So instead, the visitor center was scaled down from the original 33,800 square-foot vision proposed and evaluated in 2012.
Many of the functions planned for the new meeting and event center, the harbor commission board report said, currently take place aboard the ship.
The Iowa operates at the port under a 45-year agreement that expires in May 2057.