History Museum to Branch Out in Burbank : Exhibits: The first satellite facility is expected to open by summer, 1992. A developer will provide the building in the Media City Center.

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County plans to open a San Fernando Valley branch in Burbank, its first such satellite facility.

The $2-million branch, scheduled to open by the summer of 1992, will be housed in a two-story, 12,500-square-foot hall in the Media City Center complex under construction at 3rd Street and Cypress Avenue.

The building will be provided by Media City Center developer Alexander Haagen Co. of Los Angeles, with the city of Burbank raising $300,000 from private sources to furnish it.

Exhibits will include “Animated Dinosaurs,” featuring huge electronic replicas that move and roar, and artifacts from the county’s gem and textile collections and from such museums as the Smithsonian Institution.

“We’re really excited about this,” said Mark Rodriguez, chief deputy director of the Natural History Museum. “From time to time, we poll our patrons and they complain about having to travel so far to central Los Angeles and say they wish we were closer.

“Now, we will be,” he said. The museum is in Exposition Park in central Los Angeles, about 13 miles from Burbank.

Media City Center is a 41-acre, $400-million complex of offices, a hotel and a shopping mall.

Alexander Haagen Co. had offered to build a community meeting center in the complex, but Burbank officials said they asked for the museum building because it will provide new cultural opportunities.

“It’s a wonderful chance to bring a first-rate cultural and educational institution not only to Burbank, but to the entire San Fernando Valley,” Burbank City Councilman Robert R. Bowne said. “In one trip, you and your kids can look at a dinosaur exhibit and do errands at the same time.”

The museum owns more artifacts than it can display at one time, so it creates several traveling exhibits, some of which will be displayed at the Burbank branch, Rodriguez said.

The museum has seven traveling shows, including one on dinosaurs and another on Eurasian nomads, he said.

Exhibit space in the branch will be about a quarter the size of that in the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, which the Natural Museum also operates.

Burbank Vice Mayor Michael R. Hastings expressed confidence that the city could raise the $300,000 for museum furnishings, as required by an agreement between the city, the museum and the developer.

“It’s a tough economy right now, but I know we’ll raise the money one way or another,” Hastings said. “This is the kind of challenge I sharpen my teeth on.”

Tom Rhades, who has conducted fund-raising drives as director of the Santa Monica Museum, predicted the city would succeed in raising money.

“There are lots of things that give this project a head start--the proximity of the movie studios, which will probably contribute money” and the prestige of the museum, Rhades said.

The museum agreement calls for the developer to lease the branch museum for $1 a year to the Natural History Museum’s foundation, Fred Bruning, a partner in the development firm, said.

The city will foot the utilities bill, estimated to be at least $50,000 a year, Hastings said. It will come from funds formerly budgeted for a community center, he said.

The city no longer needs the money for a community center because the Hilton Hotel in Burbank has agreed to provide a center free in exchange for city permission to expand the hotel, Hastings said. The museum and the county will pay the $125,000 in annual operating costs, Hastings said. Admission will cost at least $2 per adult and will be go toward operating costs, Rodriguez said.

It will be open seven days a week, he said.

Media City Center is bounded by Magnolia Avenue on the south, Burbank Boulevard on the north, Third Street on the east and the Golden State Freeway on the west.