On the first public weekend at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, the central plaza under Ma Yansong's curved building was closed off on both sides by fences covered in plastic greenery. Tall statues that were half stormtrooper and half USC Trojan stood at the gaps. The Los Angeles Times reported that visitors were sent through two enclosed security booths, and that permanent stainless-steel fences, eventually to be planted with real greenery, would replace the temporary ones.
Seven weeks after the Lucas opened, on Friday, November 13, the California Science Center opened the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center a short walk away. It has its own timed-entry system. Exposition Park has always had ticketed events. This fall, both of its new anchors put a booking step in front of the main attraction. For anyone living in West Adams, the useful map of the park now shows which doors need a reservation, which don't, and what each one costs.
Two Booking Systems Built on Different Ideas
The two museums ask for a reservation for different reasons, and the difference shapes how a nearby visit works.
At the Science Center, general admission is still free. Timed reservations for the new Air and Space Center are "strongly encouraged," cost $4 per person, and are free for members. The Science Center's FAQ says entry without one may be limited or unavailable. The core galleries stay free and need no reservation. One booking covers up to 19 people per entry time, and groups of 20 or more go through a group reservation.
At the Lucas, the ticket is the point of entry. Admission is $25 for adults and $21 for visitors 65 and older. It's free for children 17 and under, members, active-duty military, and LM37 passholders, who are residents of the 90037 ZIP code. California EBT cardholders and disability caregivers also get in free. Free admission doesn't remove the reservation step: the Lucas FAQ says everyone, infants included, books a timed-entry ticket in advance.
| Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center | Lucas Museum of Narrative Art | |
|---|---|---|
| Opened | Friday, Nov. 13, 2026 | Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026 |
| Base admission | Free | $25 adults, $21 ages 65+ |
| Timed reservation | Strongly encouraged, $4 per person | Required for every visitor |
| Free with no booking | Core Science Center galleries | Shop, Café, Skywalker Grill, park, gardens, library, as capacity allows |
| Closed | See center calendar | Tuesdays, plus Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day |
What the $4 Booking Gets You
Endeavour went off public view when its earlier exhibit closed on December 31, 2023, almost three years before this month's opening. In the meantime it was stacked into launch position. The process began with the aft skirts in July 2023, and the orbiter was mated to the full stack on January 31, 2024. Crews then built the ZGF-designed building around it, topped it out on October 10, 2024, and finished construction on April 13, 2026.
The stack is the flown orbiter, two real solid rocket boosters, and ET-94, the last remaining flight-qualified external tank. Together they stand about 200 feet, or 20 stories. In the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, an elevator rises 140 feet up a Launch Tower to a glass-floored platform above Endeavour's nose. A 115-foot tubular slide brings visitors back down 45 feet. The gallery also has a replica flight deck, a landing simulator, and displays on all 135 shuttle missions.
The other two galleries carry the artifact list. The Kent Kresa Space Gallery holds Mercury MR-2, the capsule that carried the chimpanzee Ham, along with Gemini 11, the Apollo-Soyuz Command Module, a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle, a Space Shuttle Main Engine, and a sample of Moon rock from Apollo 11. The Korean Air Aviation Gallery pairs a Boeing 747-400 experience with a Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, a Northrop T-38 Talon, a Hawker Siddeley Harrier T.4, a Grumman F11F-1 Tiger, a Pitts Special S-1C, and a replica of the 1902 Wright Glider. The building totals 200,000 square feet, half of it exhibit space, with 100 artifacts and 100 hands-on exhibits.
What the Lucas Keeps Outside the Ticket
The Lucas ticket covers the galleries, exhibitions and theaters on Levels 1, 4 and 5. Much of the campus sits outside it. The shop, the Café, Skywalker Grill, the park, the gardens and the Research Library need no reservation. The museum adds that guests without tickets get in as capacity allows, and that access can pause at busy times.
The museum's spokesperson, Seth Fowler, described that arrangement to the Los Angeles Times:
"It's about creating the best possible visitor experience when you're there, with an eye on safety."
In the same article, Fowler said visitors without tickets can still enter the plaza, Café and gift shop after security screening, pending capacity, and can walk into the adjacent park with no screening at all.
The park is Mia Lehrer's Studio-MLA landscape. It has more than 300 trees, a hanging garden, an amphitheater, a meadow, a waterfall and 10 outdoor sculptures, with native and drought-tolerant planting throughout. The park and gardens open at 8 a.m. and close at sunset, two hours before the galleries open and even on Tuesdays, when the museum is closed.
Food works the same way. The lobby Café serves New York-style and square pizza, tacos, soft serve, salads and sandwiches. The Los Angeles Times reported many items at $9 to $15 and a $2 grilled cheese. Upstairs, Skywalker Grill is a full-service rooftop restaurant run by Rhubarb Events & Hospitality Collection, part of Oak View Group, in a room designed by Rockwell Group. The public can eat there without a museum ticket. Its lunch menu lists the Skywalker Ranch Wagyu Burger at $38 and New York steak frites at $65, so a lunch there can cost more than two adult admissions. The Grill and the Café both close on Tuesdays. The Grill stays open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and the Café until 7 p.m. those nights.
The ticket itself covers more than 1,300 works in 30-plus galleries. They include "Star Wars in Motion," with Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder; Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" and "Shuffleton's Barbershop"; Frida Kahlo's "Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser"; and, on the fifth floor, Judith F. Baca's "The History of California" from "The Great Wall of Los Angeles."
One Garage, Two New Draws
Both museums draw on the same parking: $20 a day, or $24 for cars entering after 5 p.m. The Lucas lists the underground Orange and Red garages off Bill Robertson Lane plus four other lots in the park. It calls parking limited and subject to capacity and other Exposition Park events. The Science Center sends visitors to the Metro E Line's Expo Park/USC Station.
So a family of four that drives over on a Saturday for both museums pays $16 in Air and Space bookings, $50 for two adult Lucas tickets, and $20 to park. The same family coming on foot or by train for the Lucas gardens at 8 a.m. and the free core galleries at the Science Center pays nothing.
The Rest of the Season Has Its Own Calendar
The new buildings are part of a winter schedule around the park that already runs on fixed dates:
- NightTales at the Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd. This after-dark light and projection experience runs through the museum and its gardens with timed entry from 6 to 9 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults, $25 for children and $20 for members. Remaining nights are Nov. 20, 22–25 and 27–29; Dec. 4–6, 11–13, 18–23 and 26–31; and Jan. 2–10, according to the museum's announcement.
- Expo Center Winter Holiday Festival, Saturday, Dec. 12, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the EXPO Center, per the Exposition Park listing.
- Noche de Rábanos at Mercado La Paloma, 3655 S. Grand Ave., Sunday, Dec. 13, from 1 to 6 p.m. This free event includes a radish-carving competition, live music and Oaxacan folkloric performances, according to the Mercado.
Mercado La Paloma is also a lower-cost alternative to the Grill on any day. Its directory lists Holbox, Taqueria Vista Hermosa, Thai Corner Food Express, Chichen Itza, Komal and Oaxacalifornia. Komal makes fresh masa daily in its Mercado kitchen. Holbox posts hours Tuesday through Sunday starting at 11:30 a.m., so it's open on Tuesdays, when the Lucas restaurants are closed.
Closer to home, The Win-Dow has a West Adams location planned at 3701 W. Jefferson Blvd.
At both museums, the headline exhibits require a booking, while the gardens, the Science Center's core galleries and the Lucas cafés stay open to anyone who walks in. The Lucas gardens open at 8 a.m. every day of the week.
If you live near Exposition Park and want to know how buyers might weigh two new museums down the street along with your home's own features, Joanna Steinberg can walk through it with you. Work With JoJo.
