The project emanates from a comprehensive long-range Master Plan for Rancho Los Alamitos and it is the largest and final component of the more than one hundred and sixty recommendations implemented. The project will provide public interior spaces for exhibitions, meetings and programming with modern media capability through expanding and converting an existing barn into a state-of-the-art Education Center.
The barns were moved into their current circular setting in 1968 and decorative landscaping was added, creating a park-like appearance at odds with the historic character of the ranch. The need to relocate the barns once more to create the space needed for the Education Center provided an opportunity to undertake a complete restoration of the barns area. The barns will be set back onto their traditional grid pattern layout, the structures will be fully restored with seismic and public safety improvements, and the arid working ranch landscape will be recaptured.
Phase one of the project, the relocation and restoration of the barns is underway and is expected to take approximately twelve months. Phase II, development of the Education Center and the construction of a small adjacent Bookshop & Classroom building, is expected to be a twelve to fourteen month project. The site remains open during the barns restoration phase of the project.
As the project progresses, the links at the left will be activated (underlined) and will lead to pictures and descriptions.
Click the links to watch the evolution.
