Autry Museum getting $100 Million Makeover March 06, 2008 Plans for a $100 million makeover of the National Autry Center call for a bold new museum rooted in the landscape of the West, topped with a glowing tower of translucent glass. Excerpted from Los Angeles Daily News March 6, 2008, By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer "...Founded 20 years ago, the acclaimed Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum has showcased the history of the American West from the eastern edge of Griffith Park. But with a merger four years ago with the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in northeast Los Angeles, the new Autry National Center needed room to house its cowboy, Indian and multicultural collections. So the Autry looked to architect Brenda A. Levin, who had overseen the $93 million restoration of Griffith Observatory and designed the train pavilion for Travel Town and many historic renovations downtown. The century-old Southwest Museum, now under renovation in Mount Washington, will also reopen in 2011 as a Southwest Museum Education and Cultural Center. The Griffith Park center will depict a herd of wild horses racing commuters along the 5. "I love it," Louis Alvarado, longtime honorary mayor of Griffith Park, said of the museum’s new sleek design. "I am thrilled because of so much native green. I can hardly wait for the new Autry museum." "Brenda Levin is one of the best architects in the country," added Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district contains Griffith Park. "I'm clearly proud. It gives me a great level of confidence to know that her thinking is involved with the Autry National Center." For her part, Levin said the idea is to create a more "inside-out" museum to make the Autry more transparent and open to the public." Link: Autry museum getting $100 million makeover Education | Arts & Culture | Civic & Social | Urban Revitalization About Levin & Associates | News | Home