National Trust presents annual preservation awards.

BY KRISTA WALTON

James Dean leans against a stunning white wall, a telescope nearby, the breadth of the megalopolis of Los Angeles spreading out behind him. "I don't want any trouble," Dean's character Jim Stark says as the leader of the high school gang challenges him to a knife fight. "Chicken?" the gang leader taunts, and the two tussle as a crowd of students cheers them on. So goes a scene in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause, which cemented Dean's position as a Hollywood star and showcased on film Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory.

Since the observatory opened in 1935 atop a hill in huge Griffith Park, more than 70 million visitors have come to tour the planetarium or see the famed Foucault's pendulum. Eventually, the poured-in-place concrete art deco structure (designed by architects John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley) began to deteriorate, and the exhibits were becoming dated in the face of advancements in astronomy. The observatory needed a facelift.

"The building was looking very tired after nearly 70 years, and not much had been done to restore it," says Brenda Levin, preservation architect for the project. "But that was kind of good news, because it had been preserved really well."

The observatory membership organization, Friends of the Observatory, and the City of Los Angeles worked together to obtain funding for the project. The observatory closed its doors in 2002 to begin renovations, spearheaded by Los Angeles-based architectural firms Pfeiffer Partners and Levin & Associates. In 2006, after nearly five years and $93 million, the building reopened to the public. Its restoration earned one of this year's National Preservation Awards, announced on Oct. 4 in St. Paul.

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