Almost-final design plans (95 percent) for the new Nature Center (Interpretive Center) at Placerita Canyon State Park, as of February 2014. Major differences from the final version, as installed in December 2014, include changes to the taxidermy and plants, and elimination of the matter and energy interactive exhibit.

Placerita Nature Center to Get All-New Museum Exhibits, Animal Pens

By Leon Worden, SCVNews.com | July 12, 2013

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.

Guiney said the volunteer group entirely funded the $12,000 cost of the master plan (completed in May 2010), as well as the $17,000 cost of a conceptual design, which was completed by Acton Group/GGE in October 2010.

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 for the refurbishment and installation of courtyard exhibits and animal enclosures.

.pdf courtesy of Ron Kraus, Placerita Canyon Nature Center Associates