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Master planning begins for renovating LA's La Brea Tar Pits

The Tar Pits are an active Ice Age excavation site that have yielded millions of fossils that give researchers insight into 50,000 years of history.

Credit: AP

Excavators work at the bottom of the reactivated Pit 91 at the Page Museum La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles Thursday, June 19, 2014. The public will once again get an up-close view of scientists uncovering the bones of saber-toothed cats, mastodons and mammoths in the heart of Los Angeles. In late June, the museum will resume tours of the Observation Pit and the reactivated Pit 91, where the bones of Harlan's Ground Sloth, Dire Wolf, Western Horse, Saber-toothed Cat are trapped in natural asphalt. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES — Three architect-led teams will compete for the job of leading master planning for renovation of Los Angeles' famed La Brea Tar Pits.

Officials of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County announced the beginning of the long-term initiative on Thursday.

The Tar Pits are an active Ice Age excavation site that have yielded millions of fossils including saber-toothed cats, dire wolf and mastodon skeletons, as well as samples of plants, small animals and insects that give researchers insight into 50,000 years of history.

In addition to being an active paleontological research facility, the Tar Pits receive more than 400,000 visitors each year.

The teams competing to reimagine the 12-acre (4.8-hectare) campus are Dorte Mandrup of Copenhagen, Weiss/Manfredi of New York and Diller Scofidio + Renfro of New York.

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