| Museums , Etc , I Have Worked On - 2 No Charge |
| Los Angeles County Natural History Museum Closed for 3 years due to structural and visable damage, I raised the needed money and hired the company fix the damage. While that work was being done I found a tenant for the north end of the building south of the main building- for a technical product history museum. Two friends of mine, Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson introduced me to the now-founders of the museum for the black people part at the southern end of the southern building. I helped them alot by showing them how to display their material and choosing display cases- very good people. When the main building was ready I personally set up the exhibits in the first room on the left, which was exactly the same 51 years later. Some County of Los Angeles liar has put a female's name on the room, on a small sign next to the entrance. The renovation of 2010-2011 is in the style that I had used in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History 52 years before. When I reopened the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum 50 years ago they talked of redoing in the style they did on 2010-2011- why 50 years later?! Much more family friendly now! |
| The butterfly exhibit was built exactly to plans I gave them in 1959 |
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| Los Angeles County Museum Of Art While he still owned the parcel of land that now contains the Paige Museum(I did most of the physical work) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, I asked my friend George Allan Hancock for the now art museum site to build an art museum , if I could- he said yes. Next, in a private session, I asked the then Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors if they would accept an art museum on that site if I gave it to them- they voted yes. I raised the money, chose an architect and fed him what to draw and put on the specifications list- two phases, one to be built immediately and a second for the future whenever the Board of Supervisors would choose. The lead architect and myself chose the general contractor for the construction, with myself choosing many of the colors and marble types along the way. When that was done I did the outside landscaping. I put the light pole part together but the idea came anonymously. Choosing the initial exhibits was rather easy and inexpensive- as Kissing Bobby many were happy to just speak to me. Much money was made available for daily operations. Also pledges. I chose to "hide behind" the architect and general contractor to avoid the death threats I had received doing the Civic Center between the Hahn Building and the Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles at age 9( 3 persons were sent to state prisons and 2 put on probation, which left at least 16 left not wanting a kid showing them who was better(they thought). |
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| Norton-Simon Norton-Simon Museum was a mess from being closed for years. The paint was peeling inside and out, with much graffiti. Good that it was on the plain side because that meant less to be repaired. Plain also meant easy to put marble on some walls and some glass doors and fancy stuff. I did the landscaping outside plus some of the parking lot construction. Money raised by me and paid by a board of trustees.As always, no charge by me and I did this while the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art was being built. |
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| Getty Villa & The Getty Museum |
| J.Paul Getty asked me to do the plant work at the Getty Villa and at The Getty museum(I did) BUT! he sure did have alot for me to do when I got to each place. This here or this there? This vase or that picture or what(I had already been in the stocking of the Los Angeles Museum of Art and the Norton-Simon and the Santa Barbara Museum Of Art). Somebody had been talking to J.Paul- maybe my friend George Allan Hancock who had said to me that J.Paul had started the Getty museum using me as inspiration because I had started and built the Los Angeles Museum of Art. My friend Pablo Picasso had watched me at those other museums but I doubt that he would have said anything. Why is not important- important is that J.Paul had forgotten many basics in both places. Restrooms, office space, storage space for extra exhibits and parking! At the Getty, to save the long walk up from parking across the street I added the parking structure and the tram. Easy for J.Paul and I to go up and down the hill 10 times a day but some could not do one! A side interest of J.Paul in new cameras and photographic stuff got me to design the research place in back. At The Getty and the Getty Villa I chose much of the marble when the original choices started to arrive cracked. He liked my choices and knowledge of glass doors and panels for better and more light. Some whole walls were replaced with glass. The WORLD FAMOUS architect just smiled when I got one my ideas and drew what I said. No death threats like from many of the Los Angeles-area architects who thought I,a 9 year old kid, was a threat to them when I designed the Civic Center Park between the Hahn Building and the Courthouse. |
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| Descanso , The Huntington , Arboretum |
| One day, two Nature Conservancy bullies stopped at the Arboretum and then at The Huntington and then at Descanso Gardens, each place scaring away the gardeners with beatings and giving them threats of death if they ever came back, one bully being Richard Pough, founder of the Nature Conservancy. The next day two Nature Conservancy attorneys went to each place with contracts for the female bosses of the place stating that they would pay the Nature Conservancy $100,000 a year for operating a nature conservancy on the property. But, the ladies were not going to pay anything; so, they beat the attorneys away with brooms. The following two years showed the plants wasting away. That is when I was called in. With all the vegatation removed, I built the three places back up, instructing county employees on doing the work at the Arboretum and doing all the work at The Huntington and Decanso Gardens. Much great syle- not the little stuff of before. Now people actually pay to go in those places. They are beautiful. |
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| MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM |
| After being closed for many years, the buildings were falling apart and the pipes rusted through and the insulation for the electric lines rotten. Going building by building I had every floor and wall and roof and pipe and electric line replaced. A great job was done to imitate the old style of the wood work. New tanks were put in and a great diversity of sea life put in- I had learned much during my time at Marineland Of The Pacific. Naturally no charge by me and the work of the others paid by two wealthy Monterey residents. |