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ALONG with many other pairs of lovers, the Earth has often arranged to meet the sky up at the Griffith Observatory. Twelve- year-olds placed a cautious eye to the 12-inch Zeiss telescope and focused on the moons of Jupiter. The sun revealed its face to millions of teenagers who came to gawk into the mirrors of the celeostat. Sitting in the worn seats of the planetarium, each visitor had the illusion that the universe was not actually cold, distant or infinite -- but comfortably contained within the marble walls of a 1935 Art Deco temple. And yes, come evening, as they stood on the terrace to watch the lights flare across the great sea- bordered basin, they often discovered that even if they had neglected to bring someone to kiss, the metropolis itself had grown surprisingly beautiful.
For the last four years, the Griffith has been closed for renovation and expansion -- a whole $93 million worth -- and all that time, local lovers have had to find other spots to rendezvous. Twelve-year-olds have been forced to consort with textbooks and IMAX movies. And if the sky found another place to meet the Earth, surely it was not inside the city limits. We'll have to wait until late fall for the Griffith to reopen, but up the winding road above the Greek Theatre, restoration of the building is almost complete. The copper domes have been re-clad, the mythological murals cleaned and cracks in the marble fixed.
Today, the few visitors allowed into the construction site also find that large and mysterious boxes have begun to arrive -- packed not just with a refurbished Foucault pendulum and Tesla coil but with fresh wonders. On the west side of the observatory, a tall black monolith, closely resembling the one in "2001: A Space Odyssey," now broods above the basin. More than $10 million is being spent to create a new Samuel Oschin Planetarium theater (renamed for the late benefactor) and produce what should be the most technologically advanced star show on the planet. Deep underneath the observatory, a large cave has been dug to house a considerable slice of the heavens itself.
Designers of the 60-plus new exhibits insist they will get beyond current notions of...