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Overview

This oceanarium, one of the first large-scale Southern CA tourist attractions built in the 1950s, operated from 1954 until 1987. Its acreage was purchased and transformed into a huge luxury resort called Terranea, opened in 06/2009.

Building History

The Architectural Forum said of the Marineland project before it opened: ""Biological laboratories, a sealarium, a fishing pier and a three-tier hotel cantilevered over the ocean will form part of a giant Marineland of the Pacific, 5-acre oceanarium development at Palos verdes, a few miles south of Los Angeles. First units, designed by Architect-Engineers Pereira & Luckman, were under construction: a restaurant, observation pier, administration building and two 1.5 million gallon exhibition tanks to hold sharks, tuna, manta rays and eventually whales. The iste and first units, being erected by George A. Fuller of Los Angeles, cost about $3 million. Head of the owning group: Henry U. Harris, senior partner in Harris, Upham & Co., New York Stock Exchange firm." (See "Oceanarium for Los Angeles," Architectural Record, vol. 100, no. 1, 01/1954, p. 45.)

Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, Incorporated, and its many partners purchased the Marineland property in 1997 and went about a long-term project of demolishing Marineland attractions and planning new luxury resort amenities, such as a nine-hole golf course, 18,000-square-foot ballroom for weddings, fitness center, hair salon, three swimming pools, high-end retail outlets and eight restaurants. At its opening nearly twenty years after its acquisition, the Terranea Resort would sprawl over 102 acres and employ 600 people.

Building Notes

A note in the Architectural Forum in 01/1954 announced the plans for the Marineland of the Pacific recreation and study center on 65 acres near Palos Verdes, CA.

PCAD id: 6689