Its main building got a total makeover in 2010, and now, the Placerita Canyon Nature Center is about to get nearly $1.5 million worth of new museum exhibits and outdoor displays.
On Tuesday the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider approving a $1.465 million budget and a two-year construction contract with Delphi Productions Inc. for the design and installation of interpretive exhibits, interactive displays, signage and live animal enclosures in the museum and courtyard areas of the Nature Center.
Of that amount, $1 million comes from the state via the Proposition 84 Nature Education Facilities Program. The county got the state’s OK in April 2011. The balance comes from Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich’s 5th District budget.
Same contractor, new name: Delphi is the merger company of Acorn Group/GGE, which started master-planning the new center in early 2009.
The exhibit project, according to Parks Director Russ Guiney’s report to the supervisors, was initiated by the Placerita Canyon Nature Center Associates (PCNCA), the volunteer group of docents at the Nature Center.
The refurbishment of the building was completed in November 2010. While it was under reconstruction, the old displays were removed and placed into storage.
Some of them were put back after the building reopened, but they’re antiquated and were always intended to be replaced with something befitting a LEED-Silver certified building which, per Guiney’s report, “has been a model for many other projects within the (Parks) Department.”
The sole-source contract with Delphi for the new exhibit project would be valued at $1.23 million. The remaining $235,000 would be reallocated from a previously authorized job order contract to refurbish and install courtyard exhibits and animal enclosures.
Placerita Nature Center to Get All-New Museum Exhibits
