KEY POINTS
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Construction is complete on the $450 million, 200,000-square-foot Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center at Los Angeles' California Science Center.
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The build nearly doubles the museum's exhibit space and houses Space Shuttle Endeavour in full launch position, the only such display in the world.
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The building peaks at 200 feet with a column-free, 20-story interior clad in curved stainless steel.
Construction has wrapped on one of Southern California's most ambitious institutional building projects.
The California Science Center announced Monday that the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a $450 million, 200,000-square-foot expansion in Exposition Park, has completed construction, NBC Los Angeles reported.
The new building will serve as the permanent home of Space Shuttle Endeavour, which NASA gave to the California Science Center in 2011.
An exterior rendering of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, a $450 million, 200,000-square-foot expansion in Los Angeles' Exposition Park. Image: Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
The exhibit is home to one of just three remaining flown shuttle orbiters and the only one on the West Coast.
Designers positioned the Endeavor display in full launch configuration with authentic flight hardware, including its solid rocket boosters and external tank.
It will be the only facility in the world to present a complete shuttle stack, which includes the orbiter, two solid rocket boosters, and the expendable external tank that together made up the full launch vehicle..
The exhibit is expected to open following installation of 100 space artifacts and 100 hands-on exhibits across three galleries.
Workers install the solid rocket motors onto aft skirts for the Space Shuttle Endeavor exhibit, November 2023. Designers positioned the Endeavor display in full launch configuration with authentic flight hardware, including its solid rocket boosters and external tank. Image: Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
A Signature Design and Engineering Achievement
ZGF Architects led the design of the building, which features a curved stainless-steel exterior and a primary structure that peaks at 200 feet.
The project was engineered by Arup and built by MATT Construction. The structure's 20-story interior contains no columns and no load-bearing walls, creating unobstructed sightlines to the vertically displayed shuttle stack.
That engineering challenge, maintaining structural integrity at scale while eliminating visual barriers, puts the project among the more complex institutional builds completed in the U.S. this year.
Preparing the gallery to support Endeavour's vertical display required precision at an uncommon scale.
MATT Construction stated on its website that a 300-ton crane was engaged to lower the shuttle's aft skirts, each weighing around 10,000 pounds and nine feet tall, onto an 1,800-ton concrete slab.
Installation onto the slab required an alignment margin of less than one-tenth of an inch.
Project Timeline and Scope
The Science Center broke ground on the project in June 2022. The expansion nearly doubles the museum's total exhibit footprint and represents the culmination of Phase III of the Science Center's three-decade master plan for the Exposition Park campus.
In April and May 2024, contractors installed a gantry, shown in the image above, in three sections. The steel framework was assembled near the Endeavor space shuttle to take museum visitors to different viewing platforms. Image: Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
Construction Implications
At $450 million and 200,000 square feet, the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center ranks among the largest single-building museum projects delivered in recent years.
Its advanced structural requirement, including the column-free, 200-foot interior space, displays the complexity of institutional work and the specialized engineering capabilities such projects demand.
With construction complete, the Science Center is now installing 100 historic aerospace artifacts integrated with 100 hands-on exhibits across three multi-level galleries:
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Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, home to the vertically displayed Endeavour shuttle stack
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Korean Air Aviation Gallery, covers the principles of atmospheric flight
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Kent Kresa Space Gallery, explores spacecraft and the science of space exploration
Each gallery is designed to guide visitors through the scientific and engineering principles of atmospheric flight and space exploration. The gallery outfitting phase is expected to continue before the museum announces an opening date.
An interior rendering of the Endeavor space shuttle exhibit at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center. The exhibit is home to one of just three remaining flown shuttle orbiters and the only one on the West Coast. Image: Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center
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