HEAVENS ON EARTH FOUR YEARS AND $93 MILLION LATER, A REVAMPED, BEEFED UP GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY PROMISES TO BE L.A.'S SHINING STAR.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

GRIFFITH PARK - Ed Krupp stood Tuesday before a million galaxies and a jillion stars, dwarfed by the new ``Big Picture'' at Griffith Park Observatory. Spanning an entire wall in the newest wing, the 150-foot-long panorama is the largest ever created of deep space.

And Krupp, longtime director of the world's most storied observatory, was awed by the future below-ground exhibit.

``We don't have planets in the sky anymore -- we have landscapes,'' Krupp said, gesturing toward 170 panels soaring 20 feet above his head within the galactic cluster of Virgo. ``And this exhibit allows us to see them.

``It is our springboard into the expanding universe -- into a neighborhood we don't even know exists.''

Four years in the making, the $93 million makeover of Griffith Park Observatory is nearly complete.

Scheduled to open this fall, the 71-year-old Beaux Arts icon has been painstakingly preserved, its Art Deco designs burnished after 70 million visitors.

The building that houses the world's most visited public telescope has also been doubled in size to include 40,000 square feet of exhibit space.

On Tuesday, Krupp led a tour that included Friends of the Observatory -- which raised a third of the cost -- and Los Angeles architects Stephen Johnson and Brenda Levin, who oversaw the restoration.

What Krupp described as ``the hood ornament for the city of Los Angeles'' is as grand as ever.

``Oh, my God,'' exclaimed Camille Lombardo, executive director of FOTO, from the Cafe at the End of the Universe, which boasts full views of the Los Angeles basin. Still under construction, the hillside cafe will be run by celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

``The main point is that we haven't skimped on excellence.''

Atop Mount Hollywood, the observatory gleams in ivory, its bronze solar and planetary telescopes guarding the green rotunda and copper planetarium dome.

A terrace circles the landmark for the best views of Los Angeles. An outdoor transit marks the seasonal path of the sun.

Inside, the grand rotunda shines of polished Travertine marble and the restored heavenly frescoes of Depression-era artist Hugo Ballin.

Original arches were opened up. Bronze grills were cleaned and tinted. Wood refinished. Marble buffed. Floor tiles laid from original designs. And zodiac and other light fixtures updated.

More than 60 new exhibits are being installed inside the Hall of the Eye, with its history of stargazing, Hall of the Sky, with views of the celestial spheres, and the below-ground Edge of Space and Richard and Lois Gunther Depths of Space exhibits.

A 200-seat Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater was added. Visitors at the all-new Samuel Oschin Planetarium will get 300 plush seats beneath the world's most advanced planetary projector and dome.

And yes, a new Laserium show is in the works.

``It's not about learning,'' said Mark Pine, deputy executive director of FOTO and manager of exhibit programs, ``but an opportunity to be excited, to be inspired.''

The new Griffith Park Observatory is expected to accommodate 2 million visitors a year -- the same number as before it closed for renovations in 2002.

With limited parking up top, visitors will be asked to make reservations and take shuttles from off-site parking areas.

Krupp, sporting a double-moon crescent tie, led early visitors into the bowels of his observatory.

``This is the center of gravity,'' he said from the bottom of a grand staircase that led to a sweeping hallway into the Earth with a shortcut into the Edge of Space. ``This is the wormhole, the passage around is the Cosmic Connection to the Gunther Depths of Space.''

Below ground, a mezzanine looks across to the Big Picture -- a heavenly snapshot taken from Palomar Observatory of a section of space no bigger than a fingertip at arm's length.

The wall shimmers with 1.5 million white, blue, orange and yellow galaxies and stars.

Krupp pointed to M87, a fuzzy elliptical galaxy 50 million light years from Earth with a telltale black hole.

``This is a major undertaking of the city of Los Angeles, with a commitment ... to do it right. It is, in fact, a marvel,'' he said of the historic observatory known worldwide via hundreds of films and TV productions.

``(Only) we've been gone so long we've been lost in space -- to boldly go where no man has ever gone before.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

4 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Park Observatory, shows off the ``Big Picture'' -- a shining snapshot of the sky -- in the new Gunther Depths of Space exhibit on Tuesday. At top, a view of the nearly completed observatory.

(3) Symbols adorn the entrance to the Griffith Park Observatory.

(4) Director Ed Krupp peers through a telescope in the new Gunther Depths of Space exhibit.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

Map:

Griffith Observatory

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