Petersen Automotive Museum facts for kids
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Northwestern elevation, 2015
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| Established | June 11, 1994 |
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| Location | 6060 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, California United States |
| Type | Automotive museum |
The Petersen Automotive Museum is a super cool place in Los Angeles, California, where you can see amazing cars! It's located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile neighborhood. This museum is one of the biggest car collections in the world. It's a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching people about car history and offering fun educational programs.
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History of the Museum
The Petersen Automotive Museum opened its doors on June 11, 1994. It was founded by a magazine publisher named Robert E. Petersen and his wife, Margie. They spent $40 million to create this amazing museum!
The museum first started inside the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Later, it moved to a special building that used to be a department store. This building was designed by a famous architect named Welton Becket. It opened in 1962 as a store. Robert Petersen chose this building because it had very few windows. This was perfect for a museum, as it protected the cars from harmful direct sunlight.
In 2015, the museum got a huge upgrade that cost $125 million. The outside of the building was completely changed by an architecture company called Kohn Pedersen Fox. They added a cool, wavy design made from 100 tons of shiny stainless steel. It looks like ribbons wrapping around the building! The inside was also updated to make space for new themes and changing exhibits. The newly designed museum opened to the public on December 7, 2015.
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The museum before its big makeover in 2015
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A Porsche Carrera GT concept car on display
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A classic Boss Ampm Monster Truck hanging from the wall before the renovation
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Explore the Exhibits and Collection
The Petersen Automotive Museum has more than 100 vehicles on display in its 25 galleries. That's a lot of cars! The museum also has many more vehicles kept in a special vault in the basement.
The ground floor of the museum is all about the art of cars. Here, you can see many fancy and beautiful automobiles. The second floor focuses on how cars are made and how they work. This includes how they are designed, how fast they go, and interactive exhibits where you can learn. This floor also has special displays about racing cars, motorcycles, and custom-built cars. The third floor tells the story of the automobile, especially focusing on the car culture in Southern California.
Cool Exhibits You Might See
Some of the awesome exhibits the museum has shown include:
- A big Porsche exhibit, which even had one of only two 1939 Porsche 64s in the world.
- An exhibit about the history of Japanese cars, with many cars brought from Japan.
- A display of small, powered racecars made for children.
- A year-long exhibit celebrating 75 years of the Porsche car company.
Amazing Cars in the Collection
The museum's collection includes many famous and unique vehicles, such as:
- The "NASCAR Herbie" Volkswagen Beetle from the movie Herbie: Fully Loaded.
- Lightning McQueen from Disney Pixar's Cars (franchise) movies.
- A 1964 Chevrolet Impala lowrider called Gypsy Rose.
- A 1967 Ford GT40 Mk III.
- A 1956 Jaguar XKSS that used to belong to the famous actor Steve McQueen.
- A 2011 Ford Fiesta from Ken Block’s Gymkhana 3 stunt video.
- A 1992 Batmobile from the movie Batman Returns.
- A 2001 Honda S2000 used in the movie 2 Fast 2 Furious.
- A Ferrari 308 GTS used by Tom Selleck in the TV show Magnum, P.I..
- A De Tomaso Pantera that belonged to the legendary singer Elvis Presley.
- One of the DeLorean time machines from the movie Back to the Future.
- Luke Skywalker's landspeeder from Star Wars.
- The Plymouth XNR built by Gotham Garage on the show Car Masters: Rust to Riches.
- A 1998 Cadillac Popemobile, used by the Pope.
- A 1978 Mercedes-Benz 600 Landaulet that belonged to Saddam Hussein.
- An armored 1988 Mercedes-Benz SEL used to transport Ferdinand Marcos.
Museum Support
In April 2011, Margie Petersen and the Margie & Robert E. Petersen Foundation gave a huge gift of $100 million to the museum. This gift included money and the land the museum was on, plus many of the Petersens' own vehicles. This helped the museum grow and improve even more!
See also
In Spanish: Petersen Automotive Museum para niños
