{"id":260101,"date":"2026-04-09T22:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260101\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:51:10","slug":"the-la-brea-tar-pits-museum-and-getty-center-are-closing-to-prep-for-the-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260101\/","title":{"rendered":"The La Brea Tar Pits Museum and Getty Center are closing to prep for the Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Angelenos try to score tickets<\/a> for the L.A. Olympics in 2028<\/a>, Los Angeles itself is getting ready to host the Games. In addition to expanding the Metro<\/a> system (to accommodate whatever a \u201ccar-free Olympics<\/a>\u201d will look like) and eagerly awaiting the opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art<\/a>, today news broke that two of the city\u2019s best museums<\/a> will be closing for improvements, with plans to reopen in time for L.A. to host the Summer Games.<\/p>\n

The La Brea Tar Pits Museum<\/a> and Brentwood\u2019s Getty Center<\/a> both announced on Thursday they would be temporarily shutting their doors. The Miracle Mile museum will be open to visitors until early July of this year, while the Getty will remain open until March 2027. Here\u2019s everything you need to know.<\/p>\n

The La Brea Tar Pits Museum opened in 1977, but it\u2019s never undergone a major renovation\u2014until now. In fact, Time Out has long praised the \u201cdelightfully old-fashioned museum\u201d\u2014officially named the George C. Page Museum\u2014with its simple, instructive displays of items found in the pits, from the bones of a 15,000-pound Columbian mammoth to a wall of 400 wolf skulls.<\/p>\n

Now, WEISS\/MANFREDI and Gruen Associates have been tapped to rethink the property<\/a> both inside and out, introducing state-of-the-art exhibition halls and labs you can peer into, an immersive theater, indoor\/outdoor educational spaces and a rooftop terrace with views of the surrounding 13-acre park and the museum\u2019s\u00a0iconic Ice Age\u00a0frieze. The design will also incorporate the newly created Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research. The changes are meant to integrate the museum, active excavation sites, research facilities and surrounding park into a more cohesive campus. To that end, a new kilometer-long pedestrian loop will connect the disparate spaces along a clear path.<\/p>\n

\"A
\nRendering: WEISS_MANFREDI, courtesy NHMLAC <\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t been to the museum recently and want to see it in its retro glory, you still have time. It will remain open until July 6. You can visit for free at an edition of KCRW Summer Nights<\/a> on June 12, which will feature after-hours museum access and programming. Two weeks later, there will be a disco-themed dance party, dubbed \u201cLast Dance at La Brea Tar Pits,\u201d on June 27. And remember that L.A. residents can visit the Page Museum for free<\/a> on weekdays from 3pm to 5pm.<\/p>\n

The museum won\u2019t reopen until 2028, but the silver lining is that the Tar Pits themselves aren\u2019t going anywhere in the interim. The iconic outdoor attraction\u2014including the Lake Pit with its famed family of mammoths\u2014will keep bubbling away. And the pits are bound to attract even more foot traffic than normal, with the opening of the adjacent David Geffen Galleries<\/a> at LACMA later this month. On-site excavation and scientific research will continue as well, with archaeologists continuing to excavate fossils\u2014as they\u2019ve been doing for nearly 120 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: Time Out\/Michael Juliano <\/p>\n

You have more time to visit the Getty Center, which will remain open until March 15, 2027. And while the planned improvements there aren\u2019t billed as a renovation per se (the Richard Meier\u2013designed complex is pretty near perfect, let\u2019s face it), the museum is calling the project the \u201cmost significant series of modernization initiatives since its 1997 opening\u201d and promises a general enhancing of the visitor experience. What will this look like? Well, you can expect a renovated Welcome Hall, with a new cafe\/bookstore and retail space, as well as refreshed and modernized galleries, new commissions by artists and campus-wide improvements to buildings and public spaces\u2014including better cell service and Wi-Fi connectivity\u2014with an emphasis on sustainability. The electric tram you ride up the hill to the museum will also be getting some upgrades, paired with a redesigned arrival and departure experience that aims to improve accessibility for visitors. The goal is for all the work to be\u00a0finished in time to reopen in spring 2028, just in time for the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

\"The
\nPhotograph: Time Out\/Michael Juliano <\/p>\n

And in the meantime, the coastal\u00a0Getty Villa<\/a>, which reopened just last summer<\/a> post\u2013Palisades Fire, will remain open. In addition to its extensive collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, it will also temporarily house a selection of paintings from the Getty Center, harking back to when the\u00a0Pacific Palisades villa was the sole Getty art institution. And across from the Getty Center itself, on Sepulveda Boulevard, a new building will serve as an event space, hosting special programs during the museum\u2019s closure. It will\u00a0remain open\u00a0as a dedicated program space, even after the Getty Center is back up and running.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0from now until\u00a0next spring, the Getty Center isn\u2019t slowing down. It will still host its popular Off the 405<\/a> concert series this summer, as well as a full slate of exhibitions.\u00a0We\u2019re particularly excited about \u201cPaul R. Williams: Architecture Across the Color Line<\/a>,\u201d dedicated to\u00a0the groundbreaking Black architect Williams, who helped design the Los Angeles we know today, opening December 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Angelenos try to score tickets for the L.A. Olympics in 2028, Los Angeles itself is getting ready…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7579,48,52,51,47,50,49,7580,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-260101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-categories-things-to-do","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","14":"tag-los-angeles-news","15":"tag-news-city-life","16":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}