The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is to add a 3.5 acre, USS$30m park - the North Campus - to its site on Exposition Boulevard in Los Angeles, US.

Scheduled to open in July 2011, North Campus - a collaboration between the museum itself; Jorge de la Cal, AIA, of CO Architects, Don Webb of the Cordell Corporation; and Mia Lehrer + Associates - will increase the visitor area of the museum by around 50 per cent and serve as a main entrance for the public, connecting with a new Metro Expo Line stop in front of the museum. Eleven themed zones - Urban Edge, Transition Garden, Car Park, Living Wall, Entrance Plaza, Urban Wilderness, Pollinator Garden, Shadow Garden, Get Dirty Zone, Home Garden and 1913 Garden - will be interwoven with landscape features such as a pond and dry creek, groves of trees, and walking paths.

The North Campus is the first outdoor element of the museum's major redevelopment scheme, with interior work including renovations and retrofitting to the historic 1913 building housing it, seven new galleries, five new permanent exhibitions and a range of facilities including a renovated store and café. This will result in a range of new attractions opening to the public over the next few years, with the reopening of the 1913 building taking place in July this year with a new 'Age of Mammals' exhibition.

North Campus and the proposed 'Dinosaur Mysteries' exhibit will both open in July 2011 and 'Under the Sun', an exhibition examining the natural and cultural history of Los Angeles and southern California, opens in 2012.