TAKE a trip to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and you're bound to encounter some impressive bone structures. Popular tenants include the Tyrannosaurus rex and a complete cast of the long-necked Mamenchisaurus. But the biggest dinosaur is perhaps the building itself -- a hulking, fossilized fortress from a bygone era.

A three-year, $84-million renovation of the famed skeletons' 1913 home in Exposition Park aims to change that, but the project is proving to be particularly challenging. The museum says that the original architects left behind only basic blueprints of the building, and in some cases, entire designs have been lost. Continue reading more.

Here, Kate Neilson of Cordell Corp, the project management company overseeing the effort to restore and seismically strengthen the building, takes a photograph of the stained glass skylight dome. (Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times)