First contract awarded in Exposition Park makeover.

Morphosis Architects of Santa Monica was tentatively selected last week to design a new first-of-its-kind, $30 million elementary school to be built in Exposition Park near downtown Los Angeles.

That school is to be incorporated into a new $71.3 million science education/research complex

"This is the first time anything like this has ever been done," confirmed Dominic Shambra, director of bond and asset management for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Morphosis Architects was selected from among 11 finalists vying to design the revolutionary new school. That selection was made by a seven-member committee formed specifically to evaluate design submittals.

That committee is comprised of prominent architects, school officials, and state museum officials. The full Los Angeles board of education is expected to give its final approval of Morphosis on April 6.

Just last month, the Newport Beach-based Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership was selected to design the museum portion of the complex.

The new joint-venture complex being developed by the school district, state museum and USC will serve four inter-related functions. It will be a new elementary school for 800 students; a science-education hub for all 48 elementary schools in Central Los Angeles (with combined enrollment of 68,000 students); a science-teacher development center for USC; and a new California Museum of Science & Industry.

USC plans to launch a new master's degree program in science education this fall, specifically geared to making full use of the new Exposition Park complex.

Meanwhile, two buildings that comprise most of the existing California Museum of Science & Industry in Exposition Park have been sitting vacant ever since they were declared seismically unsafe after L.A.'s October 1990 earthquake.

Since then, the museum has been limited to about 150,000 square feet of space in adjacent buildings. But it will soon add 35,000 square feet of temporary exhibit space.

Upon completion, the new $71.3 million education/research complex will house 600,000 square feet of new museum space. Exact sizes for the new elementary school and USC teacher-development center have not yet been determined.

"This is going to be the biggest (public) project to hit Los Angeles in the 1990s, except for maybe the new Disney Concert Hall," declared Suzanne Glad, deputy director of external affairs for the California Museum of Science & Industry. "It hasn't gotten much public attention yet, but it will."

The science education/research complex is only the first component of what is planned to be a complete makeover of the entire 130-acre Exposition Park.

That state-owned property is bounded by Exposition and Martin Luther King boulevards, Vermont Avenue and Figueroa Street. The property contains the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles Sports Arena, California Museum of Science & Industry, California Afro-American Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, a swim stadium and recreation center, as well as manicured rose gardens, recreational fields, and vast surface parking lots.

A master plan calling for well in excess of $100 million in park improvements is now being developed. A draft environmental impact report for that master plan is expected to be released some time this summer.

Anticipated improvements under the master plan include total replacement of the park's 60-year-old swim stadium and community center, the construction of several new multi-level parking structures, more museum facilities, and additional open space and recreation areas.

The plan also calls for the state to acquire the nine or 10 privately owned parcels that remain between Menlo and Vermont avenues.

A major upgrade proposed for the 60-year-old Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is not part of the Exposition Park master plan. That project was recently put on indefinite hold after the coliseum's private-sector operator failed to sell the minimum number of luxury box seats needed to finance the project.

The coliseum and sports arena are owned by the Los Angeles Coliseum Commission, a city-county-state joint powers authority. But the land underneath those facilities is owned by the state, as is the rest of Exposition Park.

Meanwhile, funding for the long-term makeover of Exposition Park suffered at least a six-month setback last week when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted not to include a proposed $520 million park bond measure on the June ballot. That measure could likely make the November ballot. Sources speculated the bond might have a better chance of being approved by voters in November because the local recession may have eased by then.

The supervisors' decision to postpone the park bond measure will not delay development of the $71.3 million education/research complex, however, sources pointed out.

The $41.3 million needed to pay for the museum portion of that complex has already been secured from the state's Earthquake Safety & Public Building Bond Act of 1990. And the $30 million needed to pay for the school portion has been arranged by the State Allocation Board.

The postponed $520 million park bond measure did call for $17 million to be allocated toward new landscaping and additional land acquisition at Exposition Park, as well as $7 million toward a new swimming complex.

Moving forward with developing the revolutionary new school facility couldn't have come at a more controversial time for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Just last week, the Los Angeles school board reprimanded or suspended more than a dozen of its top fiscal managers, including Superintendent Bill Anton, for miscalculations that resulted in the district's embarrassing $130 million mid-year deficit.

School district asset manager Shambra last week insisted the decision to proceed with the new $71.3 million education/research center has nothing to do with the district's current fiscal problems.

"This phase of the project is being totally financed with state funds," he said.