Located inside Griffith Park, the Griffith Observatory is the leader of public astronomy in southern California and around the world since it opened in 1935. More people have looked through Griffith Observatory's telescope than any other telescope on Earth. Its iconic facade has been featured in more than 300 films and television shows.
The Observatory is a Los Angeles landmark and worldwide tourist destination for over a million visitors a year. Their mission, "Griffith Observatory inspires everyone to observe, ponder, and understand the sky," is realized each day in the exhibit halls and the Samuel Oschin Planetarium and each night as visitors gaze at the cosmos through the historical 12-inch Zeiss refracting telescope or their lawn telescopes.
The building closed to the public in 2002, to begin a 4 year extensive renovation with substantial additions to the existing landmark structure. Renovations included a new planetarium theater, construction of a new underground "Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon" theater and the addition of 11,000 square feet exhibit space, new exhibits, an expanded book and gift shop, a cafeteria-style food service area, and completely revamped office, shop, and production areas. Another major component of the renovation was the historic fabric of the existing building and domes and restoration of the floors, interior and exterior wall surfaces, lighting fixtures, metalwork, and ceiling murals. New plumbing, air conditioning, and electrical services were also installed.
Griffith Park has over 4,210 acres of both natural chaparral-covered terrain and landscaped parkland and picnic areas, making it the largest municipal park with urban wilderness area in the United States. On December 16, 1896, the civic-minded Colonel Griffith J. Griffith bequeathed 3,015 acres of his Rancho Los Feliz estate as a Christmas gift to the people of Los Angeles to be used as parkland. The enormous gift, equal to five square miles, was to be given to the city unconditionally "It must be made a place of recreation and rest for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people," Griffith said on that occasion. " I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happier, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered."
http://griffithobservatory.org/about/griffithobservatory.html2800 E Observatory Rd, Los Angeles, CA 90027