Petersen Automotive Museum
100 tons of stainless-steel ribbons coil around a windowless 1962 department store — the building looks like it's already in motion.
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Robert Petersen picked this former Ohrbach's specifically because it had no windows — no UV, no light damage. Kohn Pedersen Fox wrapped it in 308 steel sections held by 140,000 custom screws. Inside, 25 galleries divide neatly: ground floor shows cars as art objects, second floor covers engineering and performance. The basement vault holds the remaining half of the collection behind a premium ticket and age restriction.
What to look for
- The steel ribbon facade up close — 308 sections, 25 supports, 140,000 custom stainless-steel screws in 100 tons of type 304 steel
- Ground-floor artistry hall, where extravagant automobiles are displayed as sculpture rather than transport
- Basement vault entrance — age-restricted and priced separately from general admission
On Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile; vault access requires a premium ticket and has age restrictions, so check before you go.
Petersen Automotive Museum is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Los Angeles, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Los Angeles pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Los Angeles
- Hollywood Walk of Fame2,850 names pressed into pink terrazzo underfoot — actors, inventors, fictional characters, all at six-foot intervals for 1.3 miles.
- Dolby TheatreThe red carpet runs up these stairs every awards season — where Hollywood officially crowns its year.
- SoFi StadiumA million-square-foot canopy embedded with 27,000 LED pucks bright enough to be seen from planes descending into LAX.
- Hollywood SignA 1923 real-estate billboard that refused to come down — and ended up owning the word "Hollywood" itself.
- U.S. Bank TowerLA sold the sky above a fire-gutted library to fund its own rebuilding — and got its second-tallest tower in the bargain.
- Rose BowlA century-old sunken oval where the 1994 World Cup Final was settled — and the 2028 Olympics will return to do it again.