California Science Center

The California Science Center (sometimes spelled California ScienCenter) is a state agency and science museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, next to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the University of Southern California. The museum includes many exhibits of aircraft and spacecraft, including Space Shuttle Endeavour, multiple hands-on galleries, special exhibitions, and IMAX movies.

Billed as the West Coast's largest hands-on science center, this museum is a public-private partnership between the State of California and the California Science Center Foundation. The California Natural Resources Agency oversees the California Science Center and the California African American Museum. Founded in 1951 as the "California Museum of Science and Industry", the Museum was remodeled and renamed in 1998 as the "California Science Center," which hosts the California State Science Fair annually.

The museum's history dates back to the first California State Exhibition building, which opened in Exposition Park in Los Angeles in 1912, the site of an agricultural fairground from 1872 to 1910. The brick and terra cotta building, designed by William D. Coates, Jr., state architect, and N. Ellery, state engineer, displayed agriculturally-based natural resources and industrial products from across the state, including ranching, fish and game, coal mining, gold mining, oil production, and lumbering, as well as some of the state's recreational attractions. After World War II, the building also featured exhibits about state science and technology industries.

In 1951, the exhibition became the "California Museum of Science and Industry". The State Exhibition building was renamed in honor of major donor and trustee Howard F. Ahmanson as the Howard F. Ahmanson Building. The hands-on interactive exhibits included themes on agriculture, transportation, electricity, energy, industries, and minerals.

In 1961, the museum opened a new science wing that featured "Mathematica: A World of Numbers... and Beyond", an exhibit sponsored by IBM and designed by Charles and Ray Eames to visually demonstrate fundamental mathematical concepts. Interaction stations demonstrated different concepts including celestial mechanics, the Möbius strip, multiplication, symmetry, and projective geometry. The original exhibit closed in 1998, and is now on display at the New York Hall of Science. The Hall of Health was added in 1968.

In preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics, the museum added new exhibits on earthquakes and economics, and an IMAX theater. The opening and closing ceremonies for the games were held in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which is adjacent to the museum.

In 1994, the museum's building was damaged by the Northridge earthquake. The California Museum of Science and Industry closed in 1996 to prepare for a new facility.

The California African American Museum was founded in 1981, and housed in the California Museum of Science and Industry building until 1984, when its own facility was opened adjacent to the California Aerospace Museum.