In 1896, Griffith J. Griffith donated over 3000 acres of Rancho Los Felis to the City of Los Angeles to create a public park in his name. He then offered the city $100,000 for an observatory to be built on the top of Mount Hollywood in 1912. Designed by architects John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley, Griffith Observatory (2800 East Observatory Road) was completed in 1935. Griffith Observatory was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #168 in 1976. The Department of Recreation and Parks hired project architect Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (now Pfeiffer Partners, Inc.) and associate architect Levin & Associates Architects to design a major renovation and expansion project for the observatory, which was completed in 2006. Griffith Park was declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #942 in 2009. A man sits on a steel girder on the half-completed dome of the Griffith Observatory as other construction workers are on scaffolds on the building behind the dome. Construction rubble is scattered around the Observatory's foundation.
Griffith Observatory Observatories--California--Los Angeles Building construction--California--Los Angeles Girders Reinforced concrete Parks--California--Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Mountains--California, Southern Austin, John C. W.(John Corneby Wilson),1870-1963 Ashley, Frederick M Santa Monica Mountains (Calif.) Griffith Park (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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