DESIGNER'S PROPOSAL FOR VALLEY MUSEUM OPEN TO PUBLIC VIEW.

Byline: Martin Kuz and Dana Bartholomew Staff Writers

Preliminary drawings for the first public-financed museum in the San Fernando Valley were unveiled Friday, showing a wedge-shaped structure that looks like a spaceship or a pile of dry timber.

Douglas Ring, chairman of the board at the Children's Museum of Los Angeles, emphasized that plans for the Hansen Dam campus were strictly an architectural schematic - or loose reference point from which civic leaders and residents can discuss the design.

``I think the concept is spectacular,'' Ring said. ``We're not building a Star Trek space station - none of the curves that will go into this yet exist.''

Input from the community on the preliminary concept will ultimately determine the museum's look, he said. ``This is a city museum, and you can't just plop it down there.''

Architects and exhibit designers for the museum's two new campuses - the other will be in Little Tokyo - unveiled the preliminary plans at a press conference at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank.

Sarah Graham of Angelil/Graham/Pfenninger/Scholl Architecture said the Hansen Dam campus, slated to open in January 2003, will reflect its environment. The design will blend its ramped entryways into the surrounding landscape, and its rooftop will be landscaped with grass, planters and a garden.

``Los Angeles has long been known as the creative capital of the world,'' said Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, in a statement. ``The museum's staff and their creative team have taken the definition of creativity to new levels.''

The wedge-shaped building will have no air conditioning. Instead, it will rely on tubes running beneath the museum to trap and transfer cool air. Its walls will be ``combat quality'' - a light-hearted term that Graham said refers to durability.

``We want the children to be able to touch everything, including the walls,'' Graham said. ``There will be no signs that say do not touch.''

The museum will feature 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of exhibit space. The centerpiece will be ``The Big Fun Cool Thing,'' an interactive exhibit that will transport the art work of children through the structure via model trains, small streams and even dry-cleaner racks.

Exhibit designer Edwin Schlossberg, who launched his career 25 years ago by creating the Brooklyn Children's Museum, said the museum will simulate an ecosystem where children can learn about the relationship between all living things.

``We're constantly in the midst of a conversation as a society to improve the world, yet we don't always create experiences that allow people to participate in that. We hope the museum will give children that chance,'' said Schlossberg, who is married to Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, the daughter of former President John Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline.

In a variety of simulated settings - including a kitchen, an artist's studio and an observatory - children will create projects that relate to the theme of each space.

The museum will also feature two interactive computer-operated exhibits called ``The Tree'' and ``Dogbear,'' a huge, bearlike animal, that children will need to keep ``alive.''

The Art Park campus in Little Tokyo, expected to open in 2005, will celebrate the performing arts and include the museum's theater program.

The Hansen Dam campus will cost about $40 million, and the Art Park will run between $40 million and $60 million, museum officials said. Both will be financed through a combination of public and private funding.

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(color) The proposed Children's Museum at Hansen Dam will blend ramped entryways into the surrounding landscape, its insulated rooftop covered with grass, planters and a garden.