Center For Land Use Interpretation

Photos posted for this place are misleading. For the L.A. location they will show you deserts, rock gardens, and so on. Those are NOT what you will find in Culver City.
The center is in fact a one-​room gallery (though there are offices in the back), next door to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I don’t know why they show you those pictures (the sole photo uploaded for this business page, for example), because all it does is set you up for disappointment, which is unfortunate since they offer a worthwhile message.
They take a look at how the Earth is divvied up, at how it’s used, how resources are taken, and how pollution is created. They’ve made it their duty to inform the masses about humans’ affect on their planet.
When we were there yesterday they were displaying multiple TVs that flashed through slides of old steel mills located in the Midwest and eastcoast. Many of them have since closed down, and much of their acreage serves as landfills. Still, the exhibit has now made Brandon D. hot for visiting Birmingham, Alabama where you can visit their steel mill and go everywhere you please, even into the crawl spaces, and it’s turned into a haunted house for Halloween. He also was geeking out as he read more about the mill used for «Terminator 2.»
Myself, I had more fun playing with the two kitties that patrolled the gallery — a little black one and larger gray male with really soft fur who paced about and wanted to be pet frequently.
The center offers field trips, which I had heard about from one of my university professors were really fascinating. I’ll have to check them out.

A small store front gallery just down the street from the Museum of Jurassic Technology. It’s worth checking out if you’re already in the area. The displays are somewhere between art and science. They were showing videos of the ways people use land and resources (water, electricity, etc.). Not for people with short attention spans. It’s free so I can’t complain.

My son and I love this place. It’s a great place to spend an hour — there are always thought provking installations. The staff is friendly. They got a great research library and a bookstore — i got a fun «Field Guide to Sprawl».
And yes they have a friendly, very heavy kitty. He scratched me last week but I’m not going to hold that against him, as I was probably holding the rubber band a little too close to his head

You already knew about the Museum of Jurassic Technology, but this quirky little roomful of maps and aerial photography is pretty easy to miss. It’s two doors down from the MJT, and there’s nothing much to distinguish it from the outside. Unlike the MJT, however, this is real research, and not whimsically fake research.
Inside however, is a fascinating rotating display of some exhibit about land use and a really well stocked library of books on the same topic. The past times I’ve gone, I’ve caught an exhibit on police training cities (those fake buildings), parking, and the alaska pipeline.
It’s pretty much a treasure for anyone who is fascinated by urban land use.
And there is a very friendly cat that roams around inside and likes to be pet. There might be two.

As a geography major at UCLA my opinions on this place are probably somewhat skewed, but here it goes. It is very rare to find a museum fully dedicated to land use, cartography, geographic info systems, and so on. Being so, I was very excited to see their exhibit and to go through their library. For me the best part was definitely the library of books, how fun, they have such an obscure verity of geographically based literature. The exhibit was quite interesting as well and was something I took great joy in looking through. The admission is free so go try it out! however, it may be a little boring if you have no interest in land use, but its still something to do. also make sure to walk over to the Museum of Jurassic Technology just a few doors down.
They are only open from noon to 5pm on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of each week.

I give this 5 stars due to its organization, lack of heaving crowds, price for entry (free, or by donation), bookstore selection and my general quirky enthusiasm for land use and surveying.
The front area is not large, more like one room with Ikea-​like partitions to separate the bookstore from several A/​V displays. The back room is the library and reference area. If you’ve ever roamed data centers for land use and surveying, botanical or archaeological, the CLUI looks a lot like those centers, but a lot cleaner and the folks working there have much better social skills than pure academia places. All big pluses!
Unlike the museum next door that herds you through kitsch displays, this is a place to go heads down and delve into its resources. So if you like your entertainment handed to you in a uniform manner, this might not be your place. But if you have a thirst for knowledge on our urban land use/​misuse, federal land use, and general minutia of manmade utility, you could spend days here.

I expected the layout of CLUI to be different, so I was definitely a little disappointed. There are a few interesting video clips in this place that I found pretty fascinating and disgusting at the same time. I can’t believe we leave THAT much trash in the environment! –shudder– The trip to this place made me feel soooo filthy.
I recommend taking a visit if you are already in the area. Other than that, don’t make it your main stop.
Street parking is easy if you park on Bagley. No parking from 8−10AM on Thursdays though.

Pretty much anyone who has any interest in geopolitics, urban planning, architecture, hokey tourist attractions, and/​or hyperreality will enjoy this exploration of the awe-​inspiring, the troubling and the downright weird works of Man.

This place is definitely weird and wonderful. There’s almost never anyone there, though, so you have to ring the bell and see if someone will let you in. They have a great selection of books for sale and brochures (for free!) of strange places all over the country (ship yards, UFO sites, etc etc). Despite the name, they pretty much just document stuff, and leave the «interpretation» up to you.

This place is just as weird and wonderful as its sister museum next door, the Museum of Jurassic Technology. More of a gallery and research space, CLUI has changing exhibits about the way humans use (and use up) land. They also lead field trips out to local manmade hotspots (the Salton Sea was a recent trip) and host lectures. Their bookshop is fantastic, with a knowing eye for the best of art and academia. Two cats, Dover and Mochi, run the back office.