Los Angeles plays host to a wide variety of museums, including the world-famous Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the distinguished and exclusive collections of the Getty Center, and of course, the beautiful Griffith Observatory with its panoramic views of the city and engaging astronomy exhibitions. But only one of the lot is nearly as famous for its external beauty as what’s inside: the Petersen Automotive Museum. Rest assured, the inside is just as impressive, or even perhaps vastly moreso, to the automotive enthusiasts that frequent its collections.
Where is the Petersen Automotive Museum?
The gorgeous, modern structure, made of steel and red corrugated aluminium, is easy to find, assuming you know where to look (and aren’t stuck in LA’s infamous traffic). The Petersen itself can be found at 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, directly across historic Wilshire Boulevard from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and spans the entire block between Fairfax and Orange Grove. It sits in the heart of Los Angeles’s famed Miracle Mile neighbourhood, home to the city’s Museum Row that includes the LACMA, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the La Brea Tar Pits, the George C. Page Museum, and the Craft Contemporary Museum.
Visitors can easily spend a whole day on the Miracle Mile even without the museums: it’s packed with other noteworthy landmarks, including the SAG-AFTRA guild building, the El Rey Theater, the Writers Guild of America, The Grove, and the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market. Restaurants near the Petersen Automotive Museum include Johnie’s Coffee Shop, site of timeless coffee shop scenes in movies like The Big Lebowski, Gone In 60 Seconds, and American History X, as well as an IHOP, Five Guys’ burger shop, and Met Her At A Bar, a local favorite cafe famous for its classic Belgian waffles and sandwiches.
Petersen Automotive Museum Prices and Parking
A General Admission Ticket for the Petersen Automotive Museum ranges from $12 for children 11 and under, $14 for kids ages 12-17, $16 for seniors over 68, and $21 for adults aged 18-67. This price includes the main exhibit hall, but does not include access to The Vault, the Petersen’s most exclusive collection of noteworthy and historic cars. Access to The Vault costs an additional $12-$28, depending on age range.
Parking at the Petersen is easy: there is a massive built-in garage within the structure itself. Parking at the museum is free for 30 minutes and $2 for every 30 minutes after.
The History and Architecture of the Petersen Automotive Museum
The Petersen was founded in 1994, replacing a series of unsuccessful department stores. Seibu Department Store, the original tenant of 6060 Wilshire Boulevard, was a mega-store for Japanese brands and luxury goods, intended by Japanese investors from the Seibu Railway Corporation to signal the international resurgence of the Japanese economy after their defeat in World War II. They commissioned the building with famed Los Angeles architect Welton Becket, who was famous for designing other iconic Los Angeles buildings, including the futuristic Capital Records tower, the Beverly Hilton hotel, and downtown LA’s Music Center Plaza. Becket drew inspiration from Japanese architecture, fusing traditional pagoda awnings with modern American steel structures to create a truly unique structure.
Seibu operated at the prestigious address from 1960 until becoming insolvent in 1964, when the building was purchased by Ohrbach’s, another department store chain, which ran the location until 1984, when they, too, went out of business.
The iconic building sat empty for 10 years, until it caught the eye of Robert Petersen, the publisher of Auto Buff Magazine, who decided it would make a fine location for his long-dreamt automotive museum. Having worked at an office near the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles in the University Park neighbourhood, Petersen, a lifelong automotive enthusiast, resented the infrequency with which the museum exhibited its own car collection. He saw the abandoned department store as an opportunity and sealed a deal with the Natural History Museum to display their collection alongside his own at 6060 Wilshire.
Petersen commissioned the Russel Group to refashion the building as a museum in the style of automotive-inspired Googie architecture, and opened the doors in 1994. After 20 years of successful operation, the building underwent an extensive remodel at the hands of KPF Architects, who pared down the original building and used it as a base to support the aerodynamically-inspired exterior that adorns the museum today.
Exhibits and Cars At The Petersen
Despite its unique and eye-catching design, the Petersen is still most famous for its one-of-a-kind collection of unique and historic automobiles. Arguably one the largest and easily the most diverse collection of publicly viewable cars in the world, the Petersen is rivaled in size and grandeur only by the corporate-sponsored museums of German car manufacturers dedicated to their own brands: each of Audi, BMW, Porsche, and of course Mercedes-Benz operate museums as a historic legacy of their work. But none offer the breadth and variety of cars displayed at 6060 Wilshire.
The Petersen has such a vast array of automobiles that they could never all be displayed at once. As a result, the museum rotates exhibits of various themes in and out of the museum’s main floor. Examples of their many exhibits include themes like the history of electric vehicles, Hollywood Dream Machines like the beloved DeLorean DMC-12 “Time Machine,” futuristic concept cars, and branded exhibits for iconic brands and models like the Chevy Corvette, Porsche 911, and Tesla Roadster. The museum also frequently features exhibits focused on classic racing cars, early-model vehicles like the Leach Model 22A and 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen Replica, and one-off concept cars like the 1999 Speed Racer Mach 5 Prototype. They even have dedicated exhibits for unique motorcycles.
Some of the most enticing automotive specimens exhibited at the Petersen can only be viewed at The Vault, a rotating collection of the most unique and famous cars housed by the museum, including the 1971 McLaren M8E/F, a rare Jaguar XJ220, and a Cadillac DeVille built specifically for Pope John Paul II in 1998. For those visiting the Petersen wanting to see some of history’s most iconic rides, The Vault is a must-see and worth every penny of the additional cost.
