L.A. State Historic Park Plan Images

Planned wetlands and nature center at north end of Los Angeles State Historic Park

This blog is a follow-up to a previous post about the new plans for Los Angeles State Historic Park, affectionately known as the Cornfields.  The images presented at the November 20th public meeting came on-line in mid-December, and I am sharing a few of them with you here.  For the full presentation, with plenty of  exciting images, see California State Parks’ website.  The design team is headed by Hargreaves Associates landscape architects.

The existing park at the site is called the IPU (for Interim Public Use) – a temporary park while the state plans and funds the permanent park, which is not expected to be built until 2011 – and that’s just the date for the planned first phase.

Historic Photo of the Pedestrian Bridge that spanned the Cornfield Yards (extended from Spring to Broadway, no longer standing)

View of South End of planned park - including new contemporary pedestrian "fountain bridge" echoing the former footbridge

The images I found most dramatic are the following proposed transformation of the area between the park and the river.  To complete this will require some additional property, so don’t look for it to happen in phase one.

Phase 1 - World-Class park on State Parks' 32+acre site - ending at Baker Street - about 100' from the LA River

Phase 2 - Aquisition and greening of existing Metro "triangle parcel" - Baker Street narrowed - park extends to river's edge

Phase 3 - additional acquisition of non-historic buildings (including current Farmlab) - expansion of wetlands habitat

Phase 4 - Park graded to slope down to naturalized river - Baker Street eliminated - below-grade river access under existing railroad tracks.

(My apologies that some of these images, despite my high-tech prowess, have been somewhat cropped and distorted. Please see them in their full glorious proportions and detail at State Parks website.)

New Designs for L.A. State Historic Park

Rendering of Planned Los Angeles State Historic Park. Downtown Los Angeles is in the background. The foreground of the picture shows the planned "fountain bridge" connection to North Broadway on the right.

At a meeting this evening, California State Parks presented the latest plans for Los Angeles State Historic Park.  The 32-acre site is the former Cornfield Yard – a vacant former railyard located between Chinatown and the Los Angeles River – and between Spring Street and North Broadway.  There’s a temporary 14-acre park at the site today – called the “Interim Public Use” park.

Tonight’s meeting was officially the start of State Parks’ environmental review process for the Los Angeles State Historic Park Master Development Plan.  They’ve issued a Notice of Preparation requesting comments on the scope of their environmental review.  Scoping comments are due by December 18th and can be emailed to enviro@parks.ca.gov

Plan View of the New Los Angles State Historic Park

For folks who’ve been tracking the designs, they haven’t changed all that much.  In fact, I am running images from the park presentations from August.  The press person I spoke with tonight stated that the designs shown tonight should be available on-line – by the time you read this, they’ll probably be available on the State Parks webpage (which includes full-size versions of the images shown here.)  The designs were introduced by the park’s designers from Hargreaves Associates.

The park will have a pedestrian “fountain bridge” connected to North Broadway.  The bridge will echo the original trestle bridge that spanned the site historically, which enabled workers to get from Broadway to get to industrial jobs at the yard and in areas east of it.  The bridge is an important connection, as currently, the bluffs and the Metro Gold Line train are barriers to access for communities west of the site, including Chinatown and Solano Canyon.  At least two additional pedestrian access ways are proposed, but will depend on land not currently under State Parks control.  One is a proposed at-grade connection into the heart of Chinatown.  The walkway would go under the elevated Gold Line Train through what is currently a parking lot and connect to North Broadway near Gin Ling Way.  Another connection would be along the Los Angeles River.

The design of the site goes from more urban at the Chinatown end to more natural at the Los Angeles River end.  As one walks into the park from the Chinatown Metro Gold Line State, one first encounters an urban plaza, about 3 acres, which will include a children’s play area, fountains, and gardens.  These features are configured in parallel lines recapitulating the former rail tracks.  Along Spring Street will be a 3-story “welcome station” building, where the fountain bridge touches down.  The building will feature rooftop views, cafe, bookstore, and electronic historical exhibits. 

The designs call for a stage to be located at the site of the former railway roundhouse, with the stage featuring some portions of the now-buried roundhouse foundations (revealed in recent archaeological excavations.)  The stage would be used for large events, such as concerts.  Concert goers would occupy the adjacent great lawn… which is (unfortunately, in my opinion) becoming a little less great with successive designs.  In Hargreaves’ original competition-winning entry, there was a 15-acres great lawn – it took up nearly half the site.  Last summer it shrank to something like 11 acres… tonight it was 8 1/2.  That’s still a good sized plot of grass for a park in the center of Los Angeles – I just hope it doesn’t get any smaller.  I am a fan of flexible un-programmed spaces like a great lawn that can be used for a pick-up soccer game one day, then an outdoor film festival the next.

LA State Historic Park Ecology Center and Wetlands

Continuing northeast, the site winds into more formalized garden spaces which reflect California’s historical landscapes.  Five historical timeline paths run throughout the site, telling specific histories including water and industry. As one gets close to the river, one encounters the second building on the site, called the “ecology center,” which is surrounded by wetlands.  The designers are exloring using a solar- or hydro-powered pump to import water from the adjacent Los Angeles River.

The images that actually got audience applause were a look further into the future, when the park could connect to the river.  Additional parcels would need to be purchased, so it would be phase 2 (or probably phase 7+.)  Concept images showed the river edge of the park extending from the North Broadway Bridge to the North Spring Street Bridge.

Audience members were generally excited about the project, though they expressed concerns including traffic and parking (reminding me that we’re still in Los Angeles), the absence of commemoration of the water wheel that was at the site, and connections between the park and the adjacent Chinatown Gold Line Station.  Joe Edmiston, head of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, suggested that State Parks forego constructing any buildings on the site, and instead use funds purchase the bluff land above the park and the parcels along the river.  This additional acreage would connect LASHP with the river and with Elysian Park.

Though neither the design team nor the agency staff would comment on cost estimates, my sense is that it will be at least $60-70M for just the initial park and probably double that when we really make the connections to the River and to points west of the park.  State Parks has some of this money (rumored to $20-30M) set aside from past park bonds, so there are some serious funding needs to be covered before we proceed with construction.  Maybe Mayor Villaraigosa get this included in President Obama’s economic stimulus package?

The final schematic design is supposed to be complete in February 2009.  The earliest planned grand opening would be in 2012 and that’s likely to be phase one.

Recent News, Upcoming Events 2008 September 18

An occasional round-up of news and events. Act now as these links tend to get kinda stale kinda quickly.

Urban River Turtles: on August 30th, the L.A. Times reported that Endangered Green Sea Turtles have taken up residence at the mouth of the San Gabriel River.

Long Beach Buy River Greenway Parcel: on September 11th, costar.com reported that Long Beach has acquired land for their L.A. River Greenway. The parcel is located between 6th and 7th Streets on the west side of downtown Long Beach.

Urban River Hippos, too?: on September 17th a Downtown News editorial cartoon blatantly favors dangerous invasive species in our local waterways.

Layers of Cornfield History: on September 17th, the selfsame Downtown News reports on archaeologists invading our cornfields.

“I don’t look back, only forward.” : on September 17th, L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez interviews Dorothy Green, founder of Heal the Bay and the California Water Impact Network and one of our heroes.

Upcoming Events:

California Coastal Clean-up Day takes place this Saturday September 20th from 9am to 12noon at beaches, parks, creeks and rivers near you.

The 2008 Frogtown Artwalk is also this Saturday. It opens with a 4:30pm Los Angeles River walk hosted by yours truly. It’s a great stretch of river – come on down.

Friends of the Los Angeles River hosts Riofest on October 2nd and 4th, including music by Very Be Careful!