Things I never knew about the stained glass dome atop the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles:- The great-grandson of the designer of this dome is now president of Judson Studios in Highland Park--which made the original skylight. And Judson Studios is handling all the cleaning and restoration.
- The dome stands 57 feet above the floor and contains 3,200 pounds of glass.
Other tidbits about the building:
- Once carpet was ripped aways, the original stairways between the first and second floors in the north and south galleries were found to be made of "battleship" linoleum back in 1913, the most expensive linoleum available.
- The outside dome of the building has 1,866,000 ceramic tiles on it. All of them have to be removed so that cracks in the concrete dome can be addressed. Then all 1,866,000 will be resealed onto the dome.
The Los Angeles Times ran a story about the 3-year-long renovations (now at the midpoint) on Sunday, 2/17.
The Times includes this picture in its photo gallery of the renovation. Let's hope they keep the gallery up for awhile. Besides photos of the stained glass panels in the dome, there are photos of the building from the 1920s. The Museum itself has a series of photographs on display in the ground floor hallway, showing how the building was constructed and changed over the years.
No comments:
Post a Comment