LA: Cornfield News

[RAlossi]

Considering that this is one of the largest (if not the largest) park site planned in Los Angeles today, I think it deserves its own thread.




Getting Ready to Set L.A. on Its Ear With Park at the Cornfield
By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer
September 21, 2006

It's been rolled over, dumped on, plowed up and fought over.

And now Chinese lion dancers are poised to cleanse an abandoned railroad yard of more than 130 years of evil spirits to help turn it into what some are already calling "the front lawn" of downtown Los Angeles.

State parks leaders said a grassy, tree-shaded temporary park will open to the public Saturday at a former industrial site known as the Cornfield.

The $1.4-million recreation area will cover about 18 acres and will be used until a professionally planned "world-class park" is built on the entire 32-acre Cornfield site adjacent to Chinatown.

The interim park will feature a natural amphitheater for community events, four acres of open turf for informal recreation and events, a multiuse plaza for community productions and temporary buildings for public meetings and events, officials said Wednesday.

The new Los Angeles State Historic Park will also feature interpretation panels and "footprint layouts" depicting archeological features and the history of the parcel, roughly bounded by North Broadway, North Spring Street and the Los Angeles River.

A light display will depict the foundation of a century-old railroad roundhouse buried on the site. The high point is expected to be a knoll equipped with a telescope for viewing skyscrapers.

"This transformation has taken a brown field and made it a beautiful green field that many feel is now the front lawn of this great city," California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman said in announcing the opening.

The parcel picked up its nickname from the stalks of corn that sprouted from seeds spilled from railroad cars being pulled into Los Angeles starting in the 1870s.

But the roots of the site's history are even older, state parks officials said.

The earliest Spanish explorers camped next to the Los Angeles River near the property. Later, the Los Angeles pueblo's first water project — the "mother ditch" — ran through the area. The transcontinental railroad once ended there, turning the site into what parks officials describe as the "Ellis Island of L.A."

Chinese laborers who helped construct the cross-continent rail route created the first Chinatown near the property.

When the railroad tracks were abandoned and removed, the dusty, weed-filled lot was earmarked for development as an industrial warehouse site. That prompted a decade-long battle by a coalition of organizations that called itself the Chinatown Yard Alliance to turn the area into a park.

That campaign was marked by vigils, protests and lawsuits before the state intervened in late 2001 and purchased the land for $36 million.

Since then, development of the site has sparked debate in Chinatown and neighboring communities. As a result, parks officials this summer took the unusual step of staging an international design competition to pick a final development plan.

These days, three finalists — Field Operations of New York City, Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco and Mia Lehrer + Associates of Los Angeles — are putting final touches on their entries. They will be displayed Oct. 14 at a public workshop. Each firm is receiving $25,000 for its master plan design work.

Neither the cost nor the timetable for the park's permanent construction has been set by state parks officials or the California State Parks Foundation. But the design competition is being underwritten by the Annenberg Foundation, which last year staged a conceptual art project at the site that featured cultivated corn and was dubbed "Not a Cornfield."

Saturday's 9:30 a.m. opening ceremony can be reached by an entrance gate on North Spring Street. The Chinese East Wind Lion Dancers will lead the opening processional.

Along with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Gov. Gray Davis, who ordered the Cornfield's purchase as a part of his urban policy, has been invited to take part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony, parks spokesman Roy Stearns said.

[rs913]

So where exactly is this site? What streets is it bounded by?

[RAlossi]

It's in the Chinatown area. It's a large field between Broadway and Spring, from the LA River to around College Street/Chinatown Gold Line Station.

Has anyone seen the new temporary park?

[BrandonJXN]

^ I have. I rode the Gold Line a week or so ago early in the morning. It really is very pretty. However, it looks a bit like a golf course.

[Damien]

Mia Lehrer :tup:

I wonder if any of the Trojans here can tell me if they had the opportunity to study under when she was teaching there and if she's still teaching.

[POLA]

On Saturday, Sept. 30, grab your bike and head over to the Los Angeles State Historic Park (formerly known as the Cornfield) for an evening celebrating "car-free and car-lite" lifestyles. Hosted by local bike advocacy group CICLE (Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange), the event from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., whimsically titled "Life Can Be So Car-Free," includes bike rides, group walks, live music by local bands Telematique and Triple Chicken Foot, interactive exhibits featuring alternative modes of transportation and a selection of short films by local cyclist and filmmaker Ashira Siegel. 1201 Spring St., (323) 478-0060 or http://www.cicle.org/cicle_content/pivot/entry.php?id=891#body

[latennisguy]

So where exactly is this site? What streets is it bounded by?

here are some pictures of it:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/DSCF0120.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/DSCF0123-1.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/IMG_0078.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/20a_final_050.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/cornfieldsatelliteimagecopy.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/fig4-1lashpconceptplan.jpg

[RAlossi]

It's good to see that this project is in the city's spotlight. Now there just needs to be a master plan for the whole area surrounding this park. The bus/recycling facilities need to be relocated, IMO.

Can you envision a park district with rowhouses across from the park, and some residential towers around? Add some office towers to the south to buffer the residential area against the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and get the developers to pay for revitalizing the river, connecting it with the district.

[Bernd]

Let's hope they don't get too creative with their park design. Some grass, some trees, gardens and support buildings should be enough.

[DJM19]

I think an elegant park, simplistic design, would be nice. Nothing crazy, and Im warry of anything too "innovative". Try to evoke some beauty and escape. And have the bike path and such around the edges.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/Public_garden_in_Tours%2C_France.jpg/564px-Public_garden_in_Tours%2C_France.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/HydePark1_gobeirne.jpg/800px-HydePark1_gobeirne.jpg

Im not saying it should look like the Champ de Mars (not pictured), but take some cues from it with lots of open grass and trees, and limited cement.

[POLA]

but cement is so modern and cutting edge!

djm19, those photos are a great example of the type of park that is sorely lacking in LA. enough with the water fountains and sculpture gardens.

[bjornson]

Just no palm trees!

[ocman]

And hopefully, California native trees. None of that east coast maple tree foofoo crap.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

It's good to see that this project is in the city's spotlight. Now there just needs to be a master plan for the whole area surrounding this park. The bus/recycling facilities need to be relocated, IMO.

Can you envision a park district with rowhouses across from the park, and some residential towers around? Add some office towers to the south to buffer the residential area against the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, and get the developers to pay for revitalizing the river, connecting it with the district.

I totally agree, and I really hope a master plan develops in the near future.

Unlike other areas of LA, which are flat and featureless, the area around the former Cornfield is topographically a really interesting place. With the river and the hills intersecting to form a natural boundary, that area would be ideal for the development of a coherent urban district. And Los Angeles Park is perfectly situated to provide the unifying element for that district.

What's needed is more intensive and appropriate land usage to the east of the park. Imagine the development of the area into a truly urban, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, stretching from Hill Street eastward to nearly the L.A. River. Such a plan would have to include pedestrian connections and bike paths between the park and Chinatown to the west.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

I think an elegant park, simplistic design, would be nice. Nothing crazy, and Im warry of anything too "innovative". Try to evoke some beauty and escape. And have the bike path and such around the edges.

Im not saying it should look like the Champ de Mars (not pictured), but take some cues from it with lots of open grass and trees, and limited cement.

Yes. I know it's a "historic park", so there has to be all the history exhibits, etc. But for my money, usability and beauty come first, history exhibits come second.

If a park is well-designed, then more people will use it, and it will become a part of people's personal experience. That's the truest kind of history a city can have. My fear is a park designed as a historical monument where people go there once, say "how interesting" and then never again return.

Somewhat related, I was disappointed to see the LA Conservancy's stance on the Civic Center Mall. They say they're all for redoing the mall (as part of the Grand Ave. Project), but they want to preserve as many of the "mid-century modern" features as possible. Never mind that the only people in this vast city that ever appreciate those features the local workers from the county buildings, plus jurors. I say, start over if necessary, and don't be afraid to break some stuff, if it will result in a great park that everyone can enjoy.

[RAlossi]

By "Civic Center Mall," you're referring to the park(mall) and not the LA Mall (shopping mall), right? LOL.

Speaking of which, that LA Mall needs to be demolished and something else built in its place. Yuck.

[DJM19]

Yes. I know it's a "historic park", so there has to be all the history exhibits, etc. But for my money, usability and beauty come first, history exhibits come second.

If a park is well-designed, then more people will use it, and it will become a part of people's personal experience. That's the truest kind of history a city can have. My fear is a park designed as a historical monument where people go there once, say "how interesting" and then never again return.


I just think they will focus too much on the exhibit possibilities and forget its a park. Thats the problem with a lot of parks in LA, they arent parks. They are lawns and plazas in front of a building.

I think they overestimate the value of a museum-type exhibit. People just dont visit them from my experience, especially when there are SOOO many. You can have a los angeles history exhibit anywhere, why take up park space? Why not build it across the street, or at least on one corner.

[jessie_sanchez]

It needs a whole lot more vegetation...it's to plain. I miss seeing the gigantic corn crops. At night they had huge blue lights aiming down at the park and up at the hills sorrounding the park...it looked so spectacular, especially during a rainy day.

Ahhh, 2005...it was a good year.

[Ronin]

A cornfield, you say? This is exactly what it needs!

http://www.cornfieldmaze.com/

[DJM19]

I dont like the idea of a cornfield either. Just a normal, classic park. PLEASE! Not something people have to "get" to appreciate. Not something that needs explaining.

[ManMadeMound]

I just think they will focus too much on the exhibit possibilities and forget its a park. Thats the problem with a lot of parks in LA, they arent parks. They are lawns and plazas in front of a building.

I think they overestimate the value of a museum-type exhibit. People just dont visit them from my experience, especially when there are SOOO many. You can have a los angeles history exhibit anywhere, why take up park space? Why not build it across the street, or at least on one corner.


I agree. A prefect example of what you're speaking of is the La Brea Tar Pits. That's a huge park with almost zero functionality as such. It's only purpose is to exhibit the tar pits which are really a "one time visit' kind of thing. If that were to actually be developed in to a real park all the residents of that area could actually enjoy it.

The historic park has vast potential and I hope they develop it right because it already looks like they're messing up another park renovation downtown.


Oh yeah and as a side note, why would they call it "the front lawn" of Downtown? I would most certainly be the back yard.

[latennisguy]

A cornfield, you say? This is exactly what it needs!

http://www.cornfieldmaze.com/

OMG this is ridiculous!! :haha: make a maze with the image of Villaraigosa!! :haha:

[ReDSPork02]

City Leaders Set to Unveil Plans for Los Angeles River Revival
By Kerry Cavanaugh, Daily News, Los Angeles

Sep. 26--CANOGA PARK -- The dull gray concrete and fetid water of the Los Angeles River could eventually be transformed into a green corridor covered in vines, lined by trees and flowing with clear water.

Ambitious plans are under way to spruce up 32 miles of the L.A. River, and city officials chose Canoga Park as one of five "opportunity sites" slated for green space, recreation and economic development.

At a community meeting tonight, officials will unveil conceptual drawings that show a terraced waterway where people can walk among the trees and reeds along the river, and bikers can ride on a path on the raised bank.

It's a lush plan that city leaders hope will transform blight into beauty and help revitalize the surrounding community.

But some low-income residents and small-business owners worry they'll be priced out of the residential market when the river is improved. Others fear that gang members could take over the park space.

"The community hasn't really been involved in this process, which is frustrating," said Michael Cortez, president of the Canoga Park Neighborhood Council.

"This would be a great thing but it's really about walking the community through this plan to revitalize the river, and doing it in a way where the community is involved every step of the way and knowing why this is important."

City Engineer Gary Lee Moore hopes residents will step forward at the public hearing and share their concerns.

"The whole thing I've done through this process is listen. If this isn't a plan for the people there's no way it's going to succeed in implementation," Moore said. "I want people to feel it's Los Angeles' river."

Consultants are beginning the final stretch of the 18-month Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan study and expect to release a draft blueprint in January.

So far, they've held community meetings, sketched designs for the full river and selected the five sites that have more thorough design plans.

Canoga Park is the only site in the San Fernando Valley. The others include: Verdugo Wash and the L.A. River where the Golden State and Ventura freeways cross, Taylor Yard in Glassell Park, The Cornfield near Chinatown and a stretch of river downtown near First Street.

The Los Angeles River begins just east of the Canoga Park High School football field, where Bell Creek and the Calabasas Creek merge. High-density apartments, offices and single-family neighborhoods line the river, which is now a fenced-in concrete trapezoid.

Most of the year, there's a trickle of water and neighbors complain the dank flow stinks. During storms, rain and runoff transform the concrete channel into a fast-moving river.

Initial proposals envision a riverfront park from Canoga Park High School to De Soto Avenue, with terraced concrete walls and pedestrian bridges so neighbors can exercise by walking up one side of the river, crossing the bridge and looping back on the other side.

Long-term plans recommend a soccer field or ballpark along the river.

Councilman Ed Reyes has led the effort to restore the L.A. River to improve water quality and provide more green space for city dwellers. He believes reviving the river will spur economic development in the area.

"This is a working-class area that has high density. We want to change and soften the feel of the neighborhoods around the river. The way to take off the pressures of density is to soften spaces and create green space," Reyes said. "Hopefully, people will see the economic viability."

Parts of the Canoga Park area already are being transformed. Westfield's Topanga mall is in the midst of a $500 million renovation that will bring Neiman Marcus, valet parking and gourmet dining to the neighborhood.

Canoga Park also was honored last year as an All-American City, thanks largely to redevelopment by the city and mom-and-pop shops on Sherman Way.

But the neighborhoods on the north side of the river have few trees and are filled with largely older homes and crowded apartment buildings that are affordable to low-income families.

Irma Munoz and her group, Mujeres De La Tierra, or Women of the Earth, walked the streets around the river and hosted a meeting in Spanish to encourage residents to weigh in on the river revitalization.

She said she found more concern than enthusiasm for the project.

"They think that if this gets beautified, it's not going to be meant for me," Munoz said.

"The city needs to figure out a balance. This is an opportunity that as they redevelop the river, that the sense of life will spread to the nearby community."

-----

[DJM19]

Im not so sure I like the idea of consuming park space with sports-recreation stuff like a baseball field. You can put those anywhere, and a lot of parks are already dominated by sports-related stuff, thats practically all they are good for.

[Quixote]

I hope the entire length of the river will not be natural with dirt and bushes. I want to see cafes and terraces also.

[Quixote]

Here are some pics of Taylor Yard from flickr:

http://static.flickr.com/38/109590318_ab361039b9.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/39/109590339_c24a4a84b8.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/44/109590355_b2c36b95e0.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/37/109590376_6f4d779f66.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/51/109590389_fc76f6b966.jpg?v=0

http://static.flickr.com/52/109590405_73d58b469c.jpg?v=0

[DJM19]

I agree, its nice to have nature escapes, but really its a friendlier place if its well-planned, not made to look like nature took its course. They should plan for cafes and such.

[Quixote]

I think an elegant park, simplistic design, would be nice. Nothing crazy, and Im warry of anything too "innovative". Try to evoke some beauty and escape. And have the bike path and such around the edges.


But it wouldn't work well with the current environment filled with warehouses and powerlines...

[DJM19]

Well that doesnt matter. Just because the surrounding suck doesnt mean the park has to. A good park will hopefully bring matching development.

[Quixote]

Hopefully something like Lincoln Park in Chicago. They are both similar in that they are directly north and not too far from the downtown area. It would be nice to incorporate a pond like the one shown in the picture.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Lincolnzoo_fg01.jpg

[bjornson]

When Banking on River Revitalization, East Trumps West

With Draft Plan in Sight, Downtowners Have Reasons to Cheer, Lament

by Andrew Moyle

http://www.downtownnews.com/content/articles/2006/10/02/news/news04.jpg

Although an improved Los Angeles River is still decades away, those putting together the L.A. River Revitalization Master Plan last week gave hints of a draft plan expected to be revealed next month.

For those Downtowners in the 100-strong audience at the DWP headquarters auditorium last Wednesday evening, it was good news and bad.

While the revitalization of "opportunity sites" at the Rio de Los Angeles State Park and the Los Angeles State Historic Park (aka Taylor Yard and the Cornfield) stand to be among the most promising, at no stage would the west bank of the river through the heart of Downtown likely be rehabbed the way some hope.

"The western side of the river, just vegetating that and getting some plants in there so it's a little bit softer [will work]," said Mark Johnson, an urban designer and principal of Denver-based design firm Civitas, Inc. "But fundamentally, we don't think it would ever be very accessible for people, so we think it would be wise to focus our efforts and investments on the east side."

That recommendation and others will filter into a draft plan for the revitalization effort that should be completed around the middle of November, in time for the next community meeting, said Ira Arts, a division vice president of Pasadena-based Tetra Tech, another member of the river redesign team led by the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Engineering.

More than four decades after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished encasing the river in concrete in an effort to prevent flooding, efforts to restore at least portions of the waterway have been slowly gaining momentum. In recent years a groundswell of neighborhood activism, including work from the organization Friends of the Los Angeles River, has helped spur change.

The Revitalization Master Plan, which identified the five sites along the Los Angeles River showing the greatest potential in a first round of upgrades, has been the subject of more than a year of consultation and community outreach. The final meeting of an 18-month campaign is scheduled for January.

Downtown and adjacent areas stand to gain the most from the plan, which has identified both state parks and the Downtown industrial area as opportunity sites. Canoga Park, which contains the 51-mile river's headwaters, and the Vedugo Industrial Green Park a few miles north of Downtown are also on the list.

Money Matters


Among the litany of recommendations from the agencies sketching out the plan is the creation of a trio of separate entities - a joint powers authority, a nonprofit river corporation and a river foundation - to control, respectively, administration, implementation and fundraising to put the plan in place.

Federal backing for a renewed river is meandering slowly through Congress. In April, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard and U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced parallel bills to fund restoration of the river to the tune of $79 million if matching money appears on the state, county and city levels.

If funded, the first round of upgrades could begin to appear in 10 to 15 years.

While many have dreamed of expansive parks and restored habitats, the plans presented last week indicate that the west bank of the river through the heart of Downtown will see little more than a strip of green - probably with plantings of native trees and grasses - bordering the riverbank.

The problem is freight trains. While some have suggested running track underground to create a park-like extension of a rehabbed river, the trains can handle little more than a 1% grade, which would mean creating miles of ramp underneath leading a revitalized west bank. Others have suggested building up to obscure the tracks and create a contiguous connection to the river, but Johnson, who specializes in transportation planning, dismissed the idea as too expensive.

Until freight trains move elsewhere, little more than cursory beautification is possible. Passenger trains can handle a 4% grade, and if they had exclusive right-of-way, dropping the tracks underground becomes a possibility, he added. A better investment would be to create easier connection points across the river to the Aliso Pico District and Boyle Heights, Johnson said.

Nonetheless, connections to the center of Downtown will be important, starting with the four bridges - at First, Fourth, Sixth and Seventh streets - that span the river into Boyle Heights.

"The most important connections are... along First [Street], because of the way First connects back to Downtown L.A.," Johnson said. "As these neighborhoods continue to change on both sides of the river, we think all four of these connections are important."

Those connections will make for easier pedestrian access to the east bank of the river, where a rearranging of the railroad tracks is more feasible. Plans call for that area to gain a greened, terraced riverbank accessible via access points beneath railroad trestles.

Although the west bank through Downtown won't figure prominently into a river redesign, Chinatown stands to benefit. Asked after the presentation to handicap the various sites, Johnson pegged the State Historic Park as most likely to exhibit the greatest change over the next 20 years.

River redesign contributor Mia Lehrer, whose L.A.-based design firm Mia Lehrer + Associates is also in the running to design the park on the former Cornfield, expressed enthusiasm about a fully realized opportunity site.

"We have the ability of impacting what this place feels like. We can have a series of interventions about this corridor and the neighbors that surround it," she said. "A new sense of place is emerging. Somehow the grain of the neighborhood, the kinds of buildings, the way we treat public spaces, are unique and of the place."

At the former Cornfield site, only one major impediment stands in the way of expanding the currently tenuous connection to the river: the Department of Water and Power's Main Street Substation.

Located just east of the site, the station routes power into Downtown and moving it would be difficult. Instead, renderings and plans on the river's long-term timescale - 40 to 50 years - suggest cutting a channel around the substation, in effect creating a soft-banked island.

Johnson speculated that the DWP - which is footing the bill for the 18-month outreach program - probably wouldn't be on board if they weren't interested in seeing some changes.

"That would suggest they have a definite interest in what happens here because of what they do as a service provider and what the river concept does," he said, gesturing around the auditorium. "I mean, this is their building."

[edluva]

um, why is there a yurt in those pictures?

[numble]

Park Design Finalists Draw Cornfield With Bold Strokes
One calls for moving Dodger Stadium and others include theaters and bridges, as a crowd of 100 offers opinions.
By Steve Hymon
Times Staff Writer

October 15, 2006

If you were given a cleared plot of land to build a 32-acre park on the cusp of downtown Los Angeles, what would you do? Build a smaller version of New York City's Central Park? Design something radical involving the demolition of one of the city's most beloved landmarks, Dodger Stadium?

The three finalists vying for the job of designing the new Los Angeles State Historic Park — better known as the Cornfield — unveiled their ideas before more than 100 people Saturday at a community meeting in Lincoln Park.

And, it's fair to say that none of the designs could be classified as meek.

The park, bordered by North Spring Street and North Broadway, is between Chinatown and the Los Angeles River. Once a rail yard, the land was purchased by the state in 2001, saving it from becoming a new warehouse district.

The competition during the design phase has been intense. Last spring, 33 firms submitted entries. A committee selected by state Department of Parks and Recreation officials has since whittled the list to three: New York-based Field Operations, Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco and Mia Lehrer and Associates of Los Angeles.

On Saturday the finalists unveiled their drawings. The 10-member selection committee will make a recommendation, and state parks Director Ruth Coleman will name the winner in November.

The drawings shown Saturday won't necessarily be the final design. The winning design team will work with state parks officials to create the final plan, which will be presented in a series of public meetings.

Of special interest Saturday: All three proposals connected the park to a restored, natural-appearing Los Angeles River.

Those in attendance expressed a diversity of opinions:

There was too much grass in some plans, not enough in others. Some wanted more sports fields, others none at all. And there was a lot of talk about how to get there. Would everyone take the Gold Line light rail to the Chinatown station, which is a few hundred feet from the park?

As she examined the plans, Coleman said her dreams "of having a competition with some of the best designers in the country were realized…. I really think we can't go wrong with any of them."

Field Operations
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2006-10/25906379.jpg

The East Coast firm billed its pitch as "a radical proposal, a practical solution."

The plan started with tearing down Dodger Stadium and moving it to the Cornfield. A four-level parking garage would be built next to the new ballpark, with the state park — including a long promenade and sports fields — on top of the garage. That would bring the park up to the level of Broadway, which sits on a bluff overlooking the Cornfield.

The Dodger Stadium property would be divided into 205 acres to become part of adjacent Elysian Park and 60 acres for residential and commercial development.

"The stadium is obsolete and will change, whether it's five years or in a decade," said Thom Mayne, a Los Angeles-based architect who is part of the team.

The new development, in turn, would generate hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for all the improvements, according to the firm. The new Elysian Park would include a championship golf course, miles of running and bike paths, hiking trails, soccer fields and a bird observatory.

Field operations Director James Corner summed up the project by saying, "We get a bigger park, a more contiguous park and the money to build it."

Mia Lehrer & Associates
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2006-10/25906378.jpg

Los Angeles-based designer Lehrer started by telling the crowd that the new park would be "associated with our city and nowhere else."

Lehrer would take the 32-acre site and divide it into four large, grassy areas. The largest, called the Great Meadows, would be on the northern end of the park and include an amphitheater that could accommodate several thousand spectators.

The park would also have three new buildings. One, called the Wheel, would occupy the site of a former railroad roundhouse. It would also serve as a theater-in-the-round.

The other buildings would include an entryway pavilion on the Spring Street side of the park and a bridge that would allow visitors to the park to walk to Solano Canyon on the other side of Broadway.

The park also would include a walkway three-fourths of a mile long, called a Linear Museum, that would include exhibits — some projected on a screen — detailing the history of the park and city.

"We hope that this is a park that will grow with time and add to the history," Lehrer said.

Hargreaves Associates
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2006-10/25906376.jpg

The San Francisco-based landscape designer divided the site into thirds — a large public plaza, a great lawn and a section of wetlands and islands closest to the Los Angeles River.

The plaza would host a range of activities, from farmers markets to ballroom dancing under the stars. The 15-acre lawn would be the "belly" of the park.

The wetlands area would include several types of habitats and gardens where designers said visitors could have "smaller moments among the larger moments."

The design would incorporate four bridges. Three would connect the park to Broadway or Elysian Park, including a large bridge covered by the natural landscape.

"It's wide enough to be a real ecological patch between Elysian Park and this park," said Mary Margaret Jones, a senior principal with the firm.

A fourth bridge would soar above the park, connecting Spring Street to Broadway and allowing for views of the downtown skyline and the L.A. River.



The judges are expected to take several weeks to confer over the proposals. Public comments at Saturday's meeting appeared to favor Mia Lehrer.

Jan Dyer, a landscape architect, praised Lehrer's work for its classical lines and elements. "I thought hers was the one that is most likely to get built," Dyer said.

There are funding obstacles to be surmounted before the park can be built. Proposition 84, if approved by voters Nov. 7, would give the state Parks Department $400 million, a portion of which could be allocated by legislators to pay for construction. If the measure fails, the state would likely have to rely on private-sector funds, which could take years.

Still, some remained optimistic.

"This could have been warehouses, and instead it's going to be a park," said Robert Garcia, executive director for the Center for Law in the Public Interest. "It wouldn't have happened without the people on the selection committee and in the audience. This is a dream come true."

steve.hymon@latimes.com

[Codex Borgia]

WOW! Thank you Numble - Great First Post! Does anyone have an estimated timeline for this project provided that Prop 84 funding is approved and the winning design team is selected in a reasonable time frame?

[DJM19]

There are aspects of each I like. If only they could combine the best parts.

[RAlossi]

I really like the Hargreaves proposal, with the little red flag that the plaza must have shops, cafes, etc.... instead of being just a plaza. The "islands" part of their proposal is interesting, and I can see that becoming some kind of bird sanctuary (like in the middle of Echo Park).

Mia Lehrer's proposal is interesting as well, though I do think that it should include some non-grass portions. Maybe a mix between Hargreaves' large plaza and Lehrer's too-much-grass proposal would be best.

As far as moving the stadium... while that would be nice, it's way too expensive and would take years. I'd rather see a park that's accessible to pedestrians (instead of at the top of Elysian Park).

[LosAngelesBeauty]

I actually like the stadium idea the most. I think bringing the stadium down from the hill would give the Chinatown/Union Station area a stronger pull (from the rest of downtown) and become the true northern area of "Downtown LA." Currently, the lack of density in the area and poor pedestrian accessibility really limit the full potential of such a large park. I still see most people, who don't live in Chinatown, having to drive there. And without the Downtown Connector in place, forget about people seriously using the Gold Line as a practical means to reaching the park (even the article stated it would be hundreds of feet away).

Having a stadium rebuilt down below at the Cornfields could act as another catalytic project similar, but of course not to the same scale of the Staples Center. The main point would be to build something substantial that will be a guaranteed draw to the area. This could alter the urban landscape by spawning new residential and commercial development badly needed there. In addition, the idea DOES include a portion set aside to parkland as well, so it's not completely "concretized."

The worst thing is coming out of Union Station and experiencing a very anti-climatic feeling. Instead of coming out of a "Penn Station" filled with pedestrian activity, you come out to a street and feel like it's actually a pretty small town. Downtown LA needs Union Station/Chinatown/El Pueblo to be as much a destination as the rest of Downtown for the very fact that Union Station is our main transit hub. The energy should not only be contained inside Union Station, but spill out onto the streets surrounding it. Unfortunately, the County Twin Jail buildings already take up VALUABLE land that could have been developed into residential/commercial projects (perhaps they can be moved elsewhere someday). Giving the area another chance to really add something HUGE would benefit downtown tremendously. Not only that, having a stadium relatively close by to the Gold Line station would give people a mass transit option unavailable with the current Dodgers stadium on the hill.

[RAlossi]

I totally understand where you're coming from, LAB. However, the creation of a district master plan could truly alter the feeling of "anti-climacticness" (is that a word?) that people may have coming out of Union Station. The Union Station-North area has a whole lot of potential if there were more trees planted, mid- or high-rises constructed surrounding the park, and maybe some rowhouses/townhouse-style condos and apartments fronting the park where there are now only waste/recycling centers.

Chinatown-South/El Pueblo area can be developed with some mid- or high-rises as well. I know Meruelo was trying to construct something at the parcel just north of the Gold Line tracks north of Union Station (dunno what it was, but that was the parcel that received the Scorched Earth penalty)

As far as Dodger Stadium goes, that's a huge project that really does deserve some attention, but the Cornfield isn't the place for it, IMO. We have two chances to really connect the city with the river, and the Taylor Yard/Cornfield sites are our best bets. We also want to see something done relatively soon, while a Dodger Stadium relocation could take a decade or more.

I actually like the stadium idea the most. I think bringing the stadium down from the hill would give the Chinatown/Union Station area a stronger pull (from the rest of downtown) and become the true northern area of "Downtown LA." Currently, the lack of density in the area and poor pedestrian accessibility really limit the full potential of such a large park. I still see most people, who don't live in Chinatown, having to drive there. And without the Downtown Connector in place, forget about people seriously using the Gold Line as a practical means to reaching the park (even the article stated it would be hundreds of feet away).

Having a stadium rebuilt down below at the Cornfields could act as another catalytic project similar, but of course not to the same scale of the Staples Center. The main point would be to build something substantial that will be a guaranteed draw to the area. This could alter the urban landscape by spawning new residential and commercial development badly needed there. In addition, the idea DOES include a portion set aside to parkland as well, so it's not completely "concretized."

The worst thing is coming out of Union Station and experiencing a very anti-climatic feeling. Instead of coming out of a "Penn Station" filled with pedestrian activity, you come out to a street and feel like it's actually a pretty small town. Downtown LA needs Union Station/Chinatown/El Pueblo to be as much a destination as the rest of Downtown for the very fact that Union Station is our main transit hub. The energy should not only be contained inside Union Station, but spill out onto the streets surrounding it. Unfortunately, the County Twin Jail buildings already take up VALUABLE land that could have been developed into residential/commercial projects (perhaps they can be moved elsewhere someday). Giving the area another chance to really add something HUGE would benefit downtown tremendously. Not only that, having a stadium relatively close by to the Gold Line station would give people a mass transit option unavailable with the current Dodgers stadium on the hill.

[Steve2726]

Times Critic Christopher Hawthorne offers his opinion today:

http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-cornfield16oct16,0,5005259.story?coll=cl-home-top-blurb-right

ARCHITECTURE REVIEW
Fielding dreams
*Competing bids for a 32-acre park near downtown are all over the map.

By Christopher Hawthorne, Times Staff Writer

The competing plans unveiled Saturday for a new state historic park on the Cornfield site, a slender, 32-acre parcel squeezed between Chinatown and the L.A. River, cover pretty much the entire spectrum of approaches to contemporary landscape architecture. That's no small achievement when you consider that this area of design has become the most innovative and richly varied of the disciplines in the last decade, as big cities around the world work to salvage degraded industrial sites and forgotten stretches of waterfront.

Proposals by Mia Lehrer+Associates, a Los Angeles firm, and San Francisco's Hargreaves Associates focus on sustainability, concentrated blasts of architectural innovation and links to surrounding neighborhoods and the banks of a restored river. By contrast, the design by the New York landscape firm Field Operations, working with architect Thom Mayne, calls for almost impossibly grand, macro-level thinking; it proposes a land swap that would build a new Dodger Stadium on the end of the park site nearest Chinatown, among other oversized features.

Such are the benefits of having a local architect on your team who is also a recent winner of the top prize in architecture, the Pritzker: Nobody bats an eye when you announce that instead of 32 acres you are taking on more than a thousand, not to mention giving Frank McCourt's lawyers a reason to put the state parks office on speed-dial.

But perhaps even more important than the proposals — especially given that funding for constructing one of these visions has yet to be secured — the event Saturday offered a reminder of how dramatically a single design competition, if well organized, can elevate the level of discussion about planning and urbanism in Los Angeles.

We've had very few forums in recent decades, after all, in which the conversation has meant as much as the outcome or hasn't been a kind of open-mike pageant designed to camouflage the fact that the outcome has already been decided with a couple of handshakes in Sacramento or at City Hall. And in the rare instances when the architectural debates have been meaningful — on the J. Paul Getty Center, for example, or the Walt Disney Concert Hall — they have tended to focus on individual pieces of architecture and the personas of their famous designers, rather than efforts to stitch various parts of the city together. That has only exacerbated Los Angeles' status as a city of isolated attractions.

In that sense, there was an exhilarating, free-for-all quality to the discussion Saturday, conveniently sidestepping the fact that the site in question is utterly unknown to most L.A. residents and not much bigger than a high school campus. Instead, teams focused on the complex history of the former rail yard, which the state bought for $36 million in 2001, and the role it might play, as catalyst or exemplar, in a more crowded city.

The tone was set by Mayne and James Corner of Field Operations. Presenting first, they immediately announced that they were tossing out the design brief given them by the state Department of Parks and Recreation along with the California State Parks Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation, which helped organize and pay for the competition.

Mayne is sometimes guilty of architectural impatience: He can be so sure that he has come to the right conclusions about a project or building — and often he has — that once he has put in place the big, tough gestures he's known for, he lets his attention slide on the details that can make a design entirely satisfying. The impact of some of his firm's most visually arresting work can change drastically or simply fade at close range.

His collaboration with Field Operations, which is overseeing the acclaimed High Line project in Manhattan, is not immune from that problem: For all its intriguing ground-level elements, it largely seems to have been drawn up inside a helicopter hovering high above the park. Working on a recent edition of L.A. Now, a series of publications he produces with students at UCLA, Mayne had already analyzed the Dodger Stadium site and decided that it ranks as the last, best hope for a dense collection of new residential buildings near downtown. (On Saturday, he called it the Eastside's Playa Vista.) He then convinced Corner to use their joint Cornfield entry to flesh out those themes.

Since winning the Pritzker last year, Mayne has fully embraced his role as a provocative, larger-than-life figure in debates about L.A.'s future, and he is playing it to the hilt in this case. It is exactly what the city needs him to do: to keep us from falling back into the kind of default planning mode that focuses on the short term, precludes meaningful political cooperation and has done so much damage over the years.

In a different competition, the scheme by Hargreaves Associates might have seemed far-reaching in its own right. It takes a few important axes on the Cornfield site and extends them outward. Hybrid, low-slung structures by L.A. architect Michael Maltzan, hovering somewhere between bridges and traditional buildings and covered with photovoltaic panels, make these connections explicit in the landscape and create what Maltzan calls an "armature" for future expansion. A plaza with views of the downtown skyline occupies the corner of the site nearest Chinatown; moving east, the park then grows less urban and more willfully natural.

Lehrer's design calls for a similar transition and benefits from the knowledge of the area the firm has gained working on a new master plan for the L.A. River. It is the most conceptually elegant of the three finalists, calling for a series of overlapping strands that would weave the park into the city fabric and take full symbolic advantage of the fact that the site happens to be shaped like a leaf. But with the exception of a museum near the river topped by an open-air, grassy amphitheater, its architecture — by Michael Lehrer, Mia Lehrer's husband — is weak.

The selection committee, which is led by state parks Director Ruth Coleman and includes Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-L.A.) as well as Robert Hertzberg, the former Assembly speaker, will pick a winning design team by the first week in November. Then, particularly if Proposition 84 is approved by voters Nov. 7, earmarking $400 million for parks projects around the state, Coleman will move to line up funding.

But some nonfinancial obstacles loom as well. The city, for example, is already proposing to expand the North Spring Street bridge to the east of the site and may also widen the section of Spring tracing its southern edge. Those moves would run counter to the design teams' efforts to give Spring a more manageable, pedestrian scale as an entry to the park.

Having made clear that they'll choose a design team rather than a specific design, members of the committee now face a number of intriguing questions: If they select Field Operations and Mayne, are they endorsing the idea of a land swap, or will they view that proposal as merely a demonstration of ambitious thinking that could be scaled back? In using the competition as a marketing tool to drum up public support for the idea of a dazzling, high-design park, what happens if full funding never materializes? Will a cheaper alternative strike residents as a kind of bait-and-switch?

More immediately, though, Coleman and the committee have the task of sorting through the details and layers of the three plans. The schemes represent an avalanche of thoughtful design ideas and gestures, and even just clarifying the full implications of each, let alone ranking them, will take time. But in a city starved for innovative open-space strategies, that's hardly a bad problem to have.

christopher.hawthorne@latimes.com

[bjornson]

This article is from the L.A. Times: The Mayor in East Asia
It does not have to do with the Cornfield, but the L.A. River.

Could L.A. River Look Like This?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/villaraigosa/images/china1_4571_1.jpg

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/villaraigosa/images/china1_4671.jpg

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/villaraigosa/images/china1_4721.jpg

Angelenos who would like to revitalize the Los Angeles River might want to visit the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul.

The waterway flows placid and clean through the busy commercial heart of this city, tucked between towering skyscrapers and bordered by lush grasses, walkways and artwork.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa visited the urban waterway on Monday, his first morning in South Korea and the midpoint of a 16-day trade mission through East Asia.

"This is fantastic," Villaraigosa said as he stooped down from a stone step and dipped his fingers in the water, Seoul’s vice mayor at his side. "It shows you what you can do. It takes vision."

The Cheonggyecheon — pronounced Chong-ee-chon — was not always so pleasant. People once washed their laundry at the water’s dirty edge and cars zoomed overhead on a double-decker roadway that blocked light and literally kept the stream from breathing.

The city spent $360 million to transform the Cheonggyecheon, removing the road, adding burbling waterfalls, gentle rapids and square stones that allow visitors to cross along its roughly 3½–mile route through downtown. Two streets still carry traffic on either side of the channel, which lies about 50 feet below street level, hidden by fences, walls and vegetation.

Leaders in Seoul say the Cheonggyecheon’s re-birth has helped lower the surrounding temperature and more than triple the number of animal species living in and around it.

Those who knew the Cheonggyecheon before and after its revival — including Los Angeles architect Christopher Pak, a member of Villaraigosa’s delegation who spent his childhood in Seoul — say the stream offers a valuable lesson for L.A.

For one, it has a meditative quality that attracts visitors — more than 3 million since it opened last fall after its two-year restoration. There is no graffiti along its walls and no cigarette butts on the ground — a feat in a city where smoking is a virtual birthright.

"To have an open space that stretches like that enriches and refreshes the people who are around the project," said Pak, who will join Villaraigosa on Tuesday to announce an unrelated, $240-million investment by a Korean company in a condominium and retail development on Wilshire Boulevard in L.A.’s Koreatown.

Villaraigosa has pledged to re-make the L.A. River as part of his effort to link the city through an "emerald necklace" of parks and other green space. Los Angeles officials are now studying the Cheonggyecheon and several other urban waterways as they plot a future for the trash-strewn L.A. River, which has long endured failed aspirations of becoming a lush, inviting landmark.

Seoul city leaders were eager to show Villaraigosa their urban jewel Monday; they gave him a presentation with colorful maps on the plaza overlooking the stream before taking him on a walking tour, his entourage following at a comfortable distance. The officials pointed out that the Han River, which winds like a snake through Seoul, feeds the Cheonggyecheon, once the water is purified.

Afterward the tour, Villaraigosa met Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon at City Hall to sign an agreement to share knowledge and technology about river revitalization.

"I hope your plan to restore the L.A. River will contribute to the quality of life in Los Angeles," Oh told Villaraigosa as their delegations applauded and a string quartet prepared to play "Way Down Upon The Suwannee River."

[LosAngelesBeauty]

^ I showed pictures of that river in Seoul to the architecture firm initially studying the LA River awhile ago! :) (While I was at the DCBID)

[LosAngelesBeauty]

"To have an open space that stretches like that enriches and refreshes the people who are around the project," said Pak, who will join Villaraigosa on Tuesday to announce an unrelated, $240-million investment by a Korean company in a condominium and retail development on Wilshire Boulevard in L.A.’s Koreatown.


I believe Pak is an architect at Archeon, so this project could be the Wilshire/Western/MTA mixed-use project.

Or it could be Wilshire/Vermont (SE corner)? Could it be 3670 Wilshire as well?

I'm eager to find out!

[POLA]

While I was at the DCBID

Are you no longer working there?

[ucland]

What this article conveniently neglects to mention is the fact that the Han River and the Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul smell absolutely terrible. I use to run by both of those rivers—and would almost throw up. If this is what the L.A. River will become then it is not worth it!!!

[RAlossi]

^LOL!

I find that really funny. However, I don't think we're going to be having major pollution problems with the river anytime soon (bulky waste items like plastic bags, shopping carts, and couches are another story). The water quality has really improved a lot over the past few decades.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Are you no longer working there?


Moving on to something more specific relating to downtown.

[WesTheAngelino]

^ Oh? Is that your way of saying I'll have more options for a midnight snack at the corner of San Pedro and 7th at Midnight? Mmmmm low set nippies

[Wright Concept]

^wtf?

[bjornson]

^wtf?

Exactly!

[LongBeachUrbanist]

!!!???!!! :babyeat:

[LosAngelesBeauty]

:koko:

[bjornson]

Same stories, but in more detail.

Park Proposals Gone Wild

Plan to Move Dodger Stadium To the Cornfield Ruffles Feathers

by Kathleen Nye Flynn

The audience in the Goodwill Auditorium on a recent Saturday started the day by hearing an idea so outside the box it was as if the box had been blown up. The crowd of about 100 had come on a sleepy morning to watch three design teams present their concepts for the new Los Angeles State Historic Park.
A proposal by Los Angeles' Mia Lehrer + Associates calls for a 4,000-square-foot linear museum, playgrounds and an amphitheater. The park would connect to the Los Angeles River. Rendering by Mia Lehrer + Associates.

Everyone expected the proposals to be variations on a theme: Based on months of community discussion, the final plan for the 32-acre park formerly known as the Cornfield, situated below Broadway on the eastern edge of Chinatown, would most likely include an arrangement of paths and fountains, fields and bridges, perhaps a stage or outdoor theater. It would reflect the history of the site and connect to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Then a team led by New York-based Field Operations, with local architect Thom Mayne as its designer, dropped a baseball bomb.

Their proposal would involve razing historic Dodger Stadium and building a new, $500 million ballpark on the Cornfield site. They would transform the remaining acreage into a five-story aboveground parking lot. On its roof, a park would sit flush with Broadway and connect on its northern end to Elysian Park. The second component of their project would involve redesigning Elysian Park, adding nature walks, golf courses and soccer fields, and creating 1,000 acres of green space.

In the stadium's place, the team described a multi-use, high-rise development perched on the bluff of Elysian Park that would include 25,000 residents, police and fire stations, and even a school. The money garnered from selling that land - estimated at $350 million - would fund the entire project.

"Our team is taking responsibility for the project as a totality," said Mayne, whose projects include Downtown's much-discussed Caltrans headquarters. "As urban designers, we can see all kinds of potential with this project and it starts with Dodger Stadium. This is only shocking to people who don't understand what's going on in the world today.

"Dodger Stadium will move - it is obsolete the way it is right now," Mayne continued. He said that he had spoken with Frank McCourt, owner of the team and stadium, and had conducted traffic surveys around the State Historic Park.

Mayne may have a few more challenges than simply building a new ballpark. Although there has long been speculation that McCourt purchased the team with the intent of one day turning Chavez Ravine into housing, a Dodgers spokeswoman said that there has been no discussion about moving.

"There are no talks about doing that under any circumstances," said Camille Johnston, Dodgers senior vice president of communications. "Dodger Stadium will stay exactly where it is. Frank McCourt said last year that he is committed to keeping this location as the home of Dodger Stadium for decades to come."

The Dodgers were not the only ones surprised by the audacious proposal. During the public discussion section of the meeting, people used words like "insane" and "farfetched." The idea had taken the longtime supporters of the park project by surprise, and few were without opinion.

"Field Operations' plan had no connection whatsoever with what the competition was about," said Fabian Wagmister, a UCLA professor who owns a small building at the north edge of the site. "It was about making a great historic park and they basically said, 'This project is too small for us.'"

Others praised the group's innovation.

"It has merit as a bold, urban idea," said Ralph Mechum, a Santa Monica architect. "But it would take a lot to convince the neighborhood that the project would still be open to the community."

James Corner, director of Field Operations, said he felt the response to their project was mostly positive, and that the team expected their proposal to surprise people.

"Some people were a little shocked and I understand that because of what their expectations were prior to this," Corner said. "Hopefully they will realize that this type of thinking provides them with even more of what they want, like green space, recreation amenities and park space of a higher quality."

Finally, Three Plans


The Oct. 14 meeting in Lincoln Heights was the last in a series of three public events about the park site. The California State Parks Department initiated the design competition in July to rouse public interest in the park, inviting groups from around the world to enter.

After months of meetings and community input, the three finalist teams, whittled down from 33 entrants, retuned to present their concepts to the public. Along with Field Operations, a team led by San Francisco-based Hargreaves Associates and Los Angeles' Mia Lehrer + Associates made presentations.

At the meeting, community members - many of whom are involved in architecture or city planning - debated the proposals' open space, adaptability and historical references. Some felt that the technological components of the exhibits would become outdated. Others worried that the projects had too many structures.

"Hargreaves' plan is the park that I could imagine myself being in," said Dawn Dyer, a Downtown Los Angeles resident. "It's a good balance between the two other proposals, with Field Operations being too aggressive and large scale and the Lehrer plan seeming too local."

The three projects all include a well-developed northern end that connects the park site with the Los Angeles River. Additionally, each proposes creating improved connections to Broadway. But that is where their similarities end. The individual elements include:

Field Operations: "We just drove by the Cornfield park and there are paths, trees and some signage, and it is a beautiful Saturday, but there is not one person there," Corner told the 10-member selection committee at the meeting. He said that Field Operations' plan would remedy the lack of interest in the park by adding recreational uses and other programs.

Aside from moving Dodger Stadium, the Field Operations team would add six paths through Elysian Park themed with cultural references such as a water trail and a history trail. The paths would be wide enough to allow for cycling and rollerblading.

At the former Cornfield, where the large field would sit atop the parking structure, the team would create a vertical park along Spring Street made up of a series of ramps. It would be lined with a botanical forest.

Hargreaves Associates: The linear design of Hargreaves' proposal divides the park into three components: a large field in the center flanked by a plaza on the southern side, and a wetlands area on the northern side with a connection to the Los Angeles River. Like Field Operations, Hargreaves plan extends to Elysian Park, linking the two green areas with a wide, plant-covered "biological bridge."

"I'm more convinced that this project requires thinking that is much larger than the 32 acres that it is being focused on," said Marcel Wilson, a principal at Hargreaves.

The proposal includes moving recreation areas in Elysian Park onto the Dodger Stadium parking lot and then opening up the remaining park space to more habitat-oriented use. Meanwhile, two-thirds of the Cornfield site would focus on programming, such as farmers markets, large gatherings and concerts. Four bridges would provide access from Chinatown into the new park, which would be intersected with timeline-themed pathways. The Hargreaves team includes Silver Lake-based architect Michael Maltzan.

Mia Lehrer + Associates: The proposal by the sole Los Angeles-based team involves softly rounded fields surrounded by trails. The plan keeps well within the 32-acre plot, featuring curving paths lined with art displays and trellises leading to the park's connection with the Los Angeles River.

"We try to sit lightly on the ground," said Michael Lehrer, the team's architect.

The park would be interspersed with structures and facilities, including a 4,000-square-foot linear museum, two playgrounds, picnic spaces and an amphitheater. A structure called The Wheel reflects the designs of a railroad turntable and a water wheel that once sat on the site.

A glass-lined bridge with solar panels would connect to Elysian Park and light up at night.

Next Steps


Over the next month, the three proposals will be available for public viewing and commentary at various locations. Ruth Coleman, director of California State Parks, will make the ultimate decision, taking into account suggestions by the selection committee.

Currently, the Parks Department has enough funding to pay the winning team for the final version of the design, but no money has been collected toward actually building the park. Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion bond proposal for water and parks projects on the Nov. 7 ballot, could deliver some funding to the project if passed.

"The teams really surprised us today," said Coleman at the meeting. "The designs were out of the box and they all seemed to understand the need for connectivity."




I'm in favor of extending the park to Elysian Park, but I don't think Dodger Stadium should be razed and a new stadium be built closer to downtown. It's one of the older baseball stadiums and it's one of the few that don't have corporate sponsorship. If there is to be a new one, I bet it will have corporate sponsorship.

[Bernd]

I guess Mayne's grand thinking is commendable, but WTF? Other design firms entered this competition in order to win the bid. There may have been some great ideas from any of the 30 firms that didn't make the finals, but their vision was bypassed by an idiotic idea to move Dodger Stadium, which everyone knows won't happen because:

1) The Cornfields space is too small.
2) Dodger Stadium and the land its on is privately owned.
3) Dodger fans would have a shit fit.
4) McCourt has already announced he has no plans to move from Dodger Stadium and has already put tens of millions of dollars into stadium improvements.
5) etc, etc.

I like Mayne, but this is a waste.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Thom Mayne: "This is only shocking to people who don't understand what's going on in the world today."

What an arrogant prick. The quote translates to "anybody who disagrees with me is ignorant."

I do like the bold strokes of the idea. These days I think urban planning is to piecemeal, lacking long-term vision. I also like the idea of leveraging the private sector to make this happen.

The problem is, this kind of "I know better than you" attitude is not going to win the hearts and minds of local residents. In today's world of environmental-impact processes, you have to get buy-in from the people.

It's easy to be bold and experimental when it's not your own neigborhood you're experimenting on. IMO, Mia Lehrer's proposal is much more practical: it addresses the problem that was posed, which was to create park space in a city with too little of it. Lehrer's park is designed first and foremost to be usable and to connect people to nature (the river). By contrast, Mayne's park seems like an afterthought, almost a means to (in his mind) a greater end.

[Bernd]

Lehrer's plan makes the most sense: it utilizes the current space, creates lots of open space, emphasizes the location's relationship to the river, and connects the park to Elysian Park.

Plus it doesn't destroy the second oldest ballpark in the National League.

[RAlossi]

I like both Hargreaves and Lehrer's proposals. I can't stand Mayne's. It's not about total park space -- it's about creating a park for a certain area that is in desperate need of one. Dodger Stadium could create a lot more open space by building a multi-level garage or two up there on an existing surface lot.

I think Hargreaves' proposal needs some small, standalone retail structures or something in that plaza though, instead of yet another open concrete plaza that we don't need. I also think the "islands" portion of the plan may take up too much of the available space and should be downsized or pushed more into the river area. I don't know where they think all that water is going to come from... it's barely a trickle in the summer and fall. http://parks.ca.gov/pages/22272/images/hargreaves_low_res.jpg

As for Lehrer's proposal, I do really, really like the river end of the site. It's really broken up visually, with interesting areas and pedestrian paths. That's good. I just think that the rest of the site could use a more grand, manicured look. Not Pershing Square/Civic Center Park manicured, and I can't really even think of any specific examples right now, but I've seen some really nice parks that might be nice to incorporate some design concepts from.

I may be harping on the subject a lot, but again, I'm a little disappointed that none of the contestants did much to address the surrounding neighborhoods, with the exception of drawing a bunch of nice little trees on the sidewalks. A plan for the entire area is needed if there is really a desire to see the area become a vibrant place.

Looking at a Google Earth satellite shot of this area (and my own experiences driving and walking around the district) shows that there are five main sections of the district that can be unified and improved by a good park design/plan:

The historic homes of Solano Canyon, Elysian Heights, and North Chinatown. Driving on the 110 North you can see what I'm talking about. These homes should be preserved and restored because they are very architecturally significant. Of course, this doesn't mean pushing out the current residents. I can offer no specifics on how this can be accomplished.

The river connection: Again, I really like the way Lehrer's proposal connects the site with the river and allows public access to the river. Hargreaves' is really not feasible without some major water project(s) and acts as something of a nature preserve that's not very accessible to people; though a nature preserve-type environment is desperately needed along the river, I don't think this is the right place for it.

Southeast of the park: This subdistrict can be a vibrant area with residential projects, office space, and new industrial. Townhomes, rowhouses, condos, and office towers can be placed where space is currently underutilized with recycling centers, bus storage facilities, and empty lots. Lots and lots of trees are needed, as well.

Mid/North Chinatown: The park should be accessible to residents and visitors of Chinatown. The western end of the project should be welcoming from the Gold Line station and from the northern portion of Chinatown. I think Hargreaves' proposal includes a bridge over the Gold Line tracks at Bishop Road and possibly at Cottage Home Street. Lehrer's includes what appears to be a bridge at Cottage Home or Bernard Street.

Southern Chinatown/El Pueblo/Union Station: The southern tip of the site should be pedestrian-friendly and welcoming. Also, there are several unused/underused plots north of Union Station that are just begging to be developed. Homeboy Industries is opening a bakery at one of those vacant lots, and it should be interesting to see how that turns out. But there are other sites (Meruello's lot that was given the Scorched Earth penalty not too long ago) that should be cleared by the city for development of housing and retail. Look at the Google satellite image of the area, and it will give you a good idea of just how much space is available there. The city is launching a pedestrian improvement project along North Alameda and North Main streets that should help, but there needs to be some development of those open parcels. Luckily, the physical layout of the parcels can really force some interesting mid- or high-rise architecture. There's a lot of waste recycling centers here.

Again, lots of trees are needed in the western, southeastern, and southern portions of this park.

[POLA]

Not the cornfield, but still in the arena of parks:

Hollywood Central Park: The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is
spearheading a move to create a park over the 101 Fwy from Bronson
(north of Hollywood Blvd) to Wilton (south of Sunset Blvd). The
park would be approximately 24 acres and possibly have such
facilities as an amphitheater, walking trails, gathering space,
etc. The NC is being asked to contribute $5,000 toward a
feasibility study to determine the scope of the park, steps to
create such a benefit to the community, and costs. The total needed
for this study is approximately $120,000, to come from both public
and private funding.

[LongBeachUrbanist]

BTW, there's lots more on the information on the State Parks website (http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24432). The image below is my pick, the Lehrer proposal.

http://parks.ca.gov/pages/22272/images/lehrer_low_res.jpg

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

thats the winner in my opinion! looks great!

[Quixote]

Not bad. Though I'd like to see more trees included in the proposal.

[bjornson]

Hmmm I wonder what it'd take to get some more land to the left...

[Quixote]

Why don't they put that piece of land across the street to better use by tearing down those old warehouses and converting it to park space?

[ocman]

Why don't they put that piece of land across the street to better use by tearing down those old warehouses and converting it to park space?

Maybe imminent domain issues. Mayne's plan incorporates that area into the park. The others ignore it completely. It could be a completely separate issue with Mayne fairly or unfairly taking it upon himself to include it in his park plan.

[ocman]

My rank:

1)Lehrer-the best part of the park is the integration of the LA River and sustainability. Problem: Not much to do as the other park proposals. The others seem much more fun to visit. She's also designing OC Great Park which is nearly 2000 acres. Will this help her in terms of experience or is she spreading herself too thin. And I don't like those Colorado type trees. For a proposal stressing sustainability, it seems bizzare that the rendition doesn't include native trees. Maybe I'm not supposed to take the rendition too literally, but that rendering's lack of native trees does worry me.

2)Mayne- I love the ambition of adding high-density urbanity to the park. Pritzker prizer winning architecture AND a park. Building high-rises could also help force the expansion of downtown density to this area in the future. Also, it pays for itself. Big problem is that it doesn't utilize much of the LA river. And it's hard to make out what it will look like. You can't visualize it because the rendering is just geometric blocks and colored lines. Maybe too ambitious for that area.

3)Hargreaves. 3rd place doesn't mean worst. It's actually pretty good. Interesting idea of including Native, European and Asian gardens. Very Disneyeque in a good way. Not much to critique. I just don't love it as much as the first two.

Here's my proposal. If Dodger Stadium is obsolete, keep the structure, gut the field, and just turn it into a walled botanical garden much like a secret garden. The halls can be used as some type of museum.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Field Operations: "We just drove by the Cornfield park and there are paths, trees and some signage, and it is a beautiful Saturday, but there is not one person there," Corner told the 10-member selection committee at the meeting. He said that Field Operations' plan would remedy the lack of interest in the park by adding recreational uses and other programs.




That is EXACTLY my concern regarding the VERY northern end of what some may consider Downtown LA.

The lack of a vibrant city-life coming out of Union Station will truly be a shame for such a significant transportation hub (the second busiest transportation facility in Southern California after LAX and the busiest train station on the West Coast). The energy present inside the station is NEVER allowed to spill out onto the street because of Union Station's horrible location separated by the 101 from the rest of Downtown AND mainly because of the lack of retail/mixed-use development in the area. Mosiac/Axis was the worst project you could have in such a potentially THRIVING environment by not including a single fucking retail square foot! Imagine walking outside of Union Station and being able to visit at least a dozen shops/cafes/etc.? Not only does Axis destroy the chance of retail at Union Station's front entrance, but the County Twin Towers block future development by Vignes and Cesar Chavez. Union Station is an island surrounded by pedestrian-unfriendly territory.



The current park idea would be wonderful if it was surrounded by residential development. This would give the park a consistent source of visitors who would use the park as a neighborhood amenity, not a pointed destination you have to drive to. But the park currently sits far away from Downtown and there just isn't anyone over there really interested in using that park (obviously). This makes this park, unfortunately, a minimal draw and disregards it from being a catalytic project.

Building something large scale like the Dodgers stadium could spawn other large scale developments, hopefully residential and a strong retail presence critically missing from that area. IOW, it becomes a catalytic project similar to Staples Center (not to that scale of course, unless the stadium could be used for other purposes besides just baseball). This audacious plan could help create a substantial presence that will link Chinatown/El Pueblo to the rest of Downtown LA. Union Station could finally have ENERGY outside its front doors.

[RAlossi]

There's so much space just north of Union Station and southeast of the park that is developable... there just needs to be incentive to do so. Maybe some rezoning would be good, and then get the developers to pay some money into a park fund that would then be used to develop the park. This will be especially important if the parks/water bond doesn't pass.

[bjornson]

Building something large scale like the Dodgers stadium could spawn other large scale developments, hopefully residential and a strong retail presence critically missing from that area. IOW, it becomes a catalytic project similar to Staples Center (not to that scale of course, unless the stadium could be used for other purposes besides just baseball). This audacious plan could help create a substantial presence that will link Chinatown/El Pueblo to the rest of Downtown LA. Union Station could finally have ENERGY outside its front doors.

Would destroying Dodger Stadium be appropriate though? If the stadium is destroyed, it just goes on to show even more that L.A. has no regard for it's history. If a large scale development comes along though--not Dodger Stadium--then that's great.

[DJM19]

Its not a very good looking stadium though. LA has gotten rid of much worse. Not to mention, Dodger stadium is a pretty sad story if you look at the history of how it got built.

[Bernd]

Dodger Stadium is gorgeous. It's a perfect representation of mid-century sports facility design and, frankly, is one of the only examples left. The stadium is consistantly ranked as one of the best ballparks in the National League and, I'm telling you, if a decision is made to destroy it there will be an uproar.

And since when do we destroy buildings based up the history of the structure's construction? If that's the case we should knock down Union Station too.

[Quixote]

From Los Angeles Downtown News:

A Cornfield Park Winner

Hargreaves Team Gets Bid for 32-Acre Site

by Kathleen Nye Flynn

Officials with the California State Parks Department on Friday announced that it has selected a team headed by San Francisco-based Hargreaves Associates to design the Los Angeles State Historic Park, the 32-acre site adjacent to Chinatown.


State Parks Director Ruth Coleman (center) and representatives of Hargreaves Associates appeared at the site of the Los Angeles State Historic Park on Friday. Photo by Gary Leonard.
"We can't wait to take it off the page and make it into a real park," said Mary Margaret Jones, a principal at Hargreaves. "It's an amazing transformative opportunity for Los Angeles."

The decision follows an eight-month design competition, as well as years of hope for an active use of the site long known as the Cornfield. The contest, orchestrated by the State Parks Department and the State Parks Foundation, drew widespread interest from top architecture firms nationwide. Earlier, a 10-member advisory board whittled down 33 original entries to three finalists.

In the final stage, Hargreaves beat out teams headed by Los Angeles-based Mia Lehrer + Associates, which included architect Michael Lehrer, and Field Operations, a New York firm who brought in prominent architect Thom Mayne.

"It's kind of like trying to choose the best from three virtuoso violinists," said Ruth Coleman, director of State Parks, who made the ultimate decision based on the advisory committee's recommendation. "We couldn't go wrong, and I am very pleased with the recommendation."

The Hargreaves team includes Silver Lake-based architect Michael Maltzan, whose Rainbow Apartments recently opened on Skid Row.


Hargreaves' winning State Park concept, presented to the public in October, includes a 15-acre field flanked by a fountain-filled plaza on its southern side and nature-oriented wetlands and gardens that connect to the Los Angeles River on the northern tip. The plan includes providing access to the park with four bridges, two that connect to Broadway, one that soars to Spring Street, and a wide, landscaped bridge that reaches Elysian Park. There, they propose adding new trails, a habitat area and replacing some of the Dodger Stadium parking lots with playing fields.

A priority for Hargreaves is properly programming the park. They have proposed using the site for farmers markets, large concerts and festivals, and other community events.

Hargreaves will work with the Parks Department to create a final design, which could incorporate aspects from the competing proposals that resonated with the public. While the Parks Department has enough funding to pay the team for the blueprints, finding money for the project itself is the next big hurdle.

Contact Kathleen Nye Flynn at kathleen@downtownnews.com.


page 6, 11/20/2006
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.

[Quixote]

Here's the design by Hargreaves again:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/hargreaves2.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/hargreaves3.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/samceb/hargreaves1.jpg

[Bernd]

I liked the Lehrer proposal a little better, but this is a good one, too.

[ocman]

Lehrer's proposal was superior. But it's not like LA had any say. It's a state park.

[dragonsky]

It will be an amazing park.

[RAlossi]

I hope they do this right. I was also in favor of Lehrer's, but I'm sure this will be amazing! I want them to listen to the public's wishes when it comes to some details -- and that plaza absolutely must be done correctly!! Include some type of cafe or retail or even food-vendor carts, whatever needs to be done to make it anything but an empty space!

[latennisguy]

Here's the design by Hargreaves again:



Hey westside...can you please delete that broken link.

thanks

[ReDSPork02]

Officials want look of S.D.'s Gaslamp

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20061203-9999-1n3historic.html
By Gordon Smith
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
December 3, 2006

LOS ANGELES – Developers and civic leaders are trying to reinvigorate this city's languorous downtown with a pair of billion-dollar redevelopment projects brimming with condominiums, entertainment venues and hotels.

On the edge of the urban core, a more loosely organized effort is under way to restore the city's historic soul.



Los Angeles State Historic Park, which officially opened in late September, aims to highlight the early days of the 225-year-old pueblo that grew into the nation's second-most populous city – including remnants of the original canal that furnished water from the Los Angeles River to the first settlers.
Park officials hope to meld the 32-acre open space – a rarity in Los Angeles' densely developed center – with nearby historic buildings. The goal is a tourist draw that will invite comparisons to San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter as well as to Balboa and Old Town State Historic parks.

Downtown Los Angeles “is undergoing a renaissance,” said Ruth Coleman, director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation. “It's turning itself around in a really positive way. This park will be part of that trend.”

Some community activists also see the new park as a step toward creating a string of parks and landmarks, highlighting the city's multicultural beginnings and embracing a rehabilitated stretch of the Los Angeles River.

City and regional agencies also are working to improve pedestrian connections to the nearby El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which includes Olvera Street and some of the city's oldest homes and commercial buildings.

State parks officials have selected San Francisco-based Hargreaves Associates as the design team for Los Angeles State Historic Park. Only when the design is final in about a year will the state have a firm cost estimate. However, parks officials expect to draw funds for the project from Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion water quality and natural resources bond passed by voters last month.

The new park will cover a broad swath of history, beginning with the Indian presence thousands of years ago. In 1769, explorer Gaspar de Portola became the first Spaniard to visit, ushering in the modern era, and the site subsequently became the terminus for railroads bringing thousands of people to Los Angeles to seek their fortune. Mexican, Chinese and Italian immigrants were among those who created enclaves nearby.

“This was the heart of Los Angeles for 10,000 years,” said Dianna Martinez-Lilly, a San Diego-based state parks official who's involved in the development of Los Angeles State Historic Park.

One of the most intriguing artifacts discovered so far is a large section of the zanja madre, the “mother ditch” originally built by Spanish settlers in the late 1700s to carry water to their village from the Los Angeles River.

The canal runs just outside the park's boundary along its northern edge. It has particular significance to a city whose growth has been fueled by a perpetual – and at times, some would say, ruthless – search for water.

Residents from the mostly low-income neighborhoods surrounding the park site – which was being used as a rail yard – battled to prevent it from being converted to industrial development. The parks department plans to keep the property largely an open-space oasis.

The site has knolls and a natural amphitheater, and a jaw-dropping view of the downtown skyline. There's also a jogging and biking track.

Department officials hope the park will expand over time to encompass historical buildings in an adjacent industrial area slated for redevelopment. If those plans materialize, Martinez-Lilly said, the park could evolve into something akin to San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter with a park next door.

“This will be a portal to launch people to other, nearby parks,” she added.

Robert Garcia, executive director of the City Project, a nonprofit group that focuses on parks, health and transit issues for low-income Los Angeles residents, said a pedestrian trail and bus route should link the park with El Pueblo, only a half-mile to the south, and another state park planned on the east bank of the Los Angeles River, about two miles north.

“They should not be treated as isolated, separate parks but as one continuous parkway system,” he said. But coordination among state, county and city agencies is tenuous, he said.

“Los Angeles is famous for forgetting its history, and (thus far) this area illustrates that tragically,” Garcia said.

Garcia's group is moving ahead with designing 15 interpretive panels to be placed along the Los Angeles River near the new park. And not far away, the regional Metropolitan Transportation Agency is planning a more pedestrian-friendly, “grandiose paseo” leading from Union Station to El Pueblo and from there to the Los Angeles Civic Center.
Amid all the activity, and despite his concerns, Garcia expressed some optimism.

“This is a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “Los Angeles is hungry for its history.”

[yeah215]

This is nice but LA should look at the Gaslamp District as a template for the Historic Core, not Chinatown. I see the similarities between Old Town and that area. However, Broadway, Spring, Main, in the historic core can be a great neighborhood that is denser, more active, and more exciting than the Gaslamp. It would also be a wonderful way to connect LA Live and Grand Ave.

[funhaus]

December 3, 2006

Only when the design is final in about a year will the state have a firm cost estimate. However, parks officials expect to draw funds for the project from Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion water quality and natural resources bond passed by voters

It's been over a year since this article was written. Now that we're in 2008, does anyone know the status of the winning Hargreaves proposal for the former not-a-cornfield / Los Angeles State Historic park?

Will this move forward based on the Prop. 84 money, or is the looming recession going to delay or kill the transformation?

[edluva]

This is nice but LA should look at the Gaslamp District as a template for the Historic Core, not Chinatown. I see the similarities between Old Town and that area. However, Broadway, Spring, Main, in the historic core can be a great neighborhood that is denser, more active, and more exciting than the Gaslamp. It would also be a wonderful way to connect LA Live and Grand Ave.

no thanks. i'd rather dtla not begin to resemble the inoragnic gaslamp with its outdoor dining cages. no real, organic city yields entire streetlengths of lame themed chain restaurants.

dtla could do better to attract retail to compete with, for instance, the grove, and let the remainder of the neighborhood benefit from the amount of generated foot traffic spillover - but most importantly, let the cards fall where they may with as little direct intervention as possible. the point is in encouraging neighborhoods to develop on their own rather than fabricating tourist traps out of thin air.

[WesTheAngelino]

^ So I suppose all the the throngs of people who enjoy areas like the gaslamp are just boring, stupid, and wrong?

I just don't understand why so many people on this board are against things that so many people like and enjoy such as Starbucks and other chains.

[StethJeff]

:tup:

From CA Dept. of Parks and Recreation:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Kristen Perry
February 5, 2008 310-558-4566 x102
KPerry@parks.ca.gov

Rain revives urban parks in downtown Los Angeles.
Unexpected wildlife viewing area at Los Angeles State Historic Park

The speed with which natural cycles can take back reclaimed land is something
California State Parks didn’t quite anticipate. Recent heavy rainfall created a spontaneous
pond at Los Angeles State Historic Park, and replenished the wetland area at neighboring Rio
de Los Angeles State Historic Park. Both have turned into great places to view wildlife rarely
seen in the developed Los Angeles basin.

Birds are taking advantage of a place to rest, feed and bathe near trees where they find
shelter and rest. Restoring the wetlands to the city through rehabilitating portions of the Los
Angeles River, and bringing nature to the city is a significant goal of California State Parks and
a personal goal of Sean Woods, Los Angeles Sector Superintendent.

“The sighting of a variety of migratory birds and raptors shows the potential of future
habitat right in the most industrial areas,” Woods said. “This seasonal pond springing up at the
park shows the resiliency of nature and the instantaneous success of our efforts.”

The public is invited to view the pond at Los Angeles State Historic Park and the
wetlands at Rio de Los Angeles State Park. Groups interested in a guided wetlands program
are invited to call (310) 558-4566 x102.

Hurry; the Los Angeles State Historic Park’s spontaneous pond is expected to only last
a couple of weeks. The wetlands at Rio de Los Angeles State Park, however, are expected be
around through much of the spring.

[edluva]

^ So I suppose all the the throngs of people who enjoy areas like the gaslamp are just boring, stupid, and wrong?

I just don't understand why so many people on this board are against things that so many people like and enjoy such as Starbucks and other chains.

that argument could just as easily be extended to the throngs of people who enjoy areas like downtown disney and irvine spectrum right? maybe they should become templates for downtown los angeles? yet even larger "throngs" patronize south coast plaza - maybe we should raze all of dtla and build tract housing with dozens of shopping malls and other chains if their successes are to be measured on your terms.

my opinion is that LA could do better without fabricating plastic urban environments overnight in a *self-conscious* attempt at reproducing some other city's more superficial characteristics with a single broad swipe, where such things would not have occurred. Perhaps you see no difference between gaslamp and a more organic environment such as SF's north beach and you draw the line between gaslamp and beverly center. I see little distinction between gaslamp and such places, and if you do, then maybe you deserve it. I mean you're right, people in tustin don't seem to complain much about their context, and nor do shoppers at wal-mart. :rolleyes:

if angelenos want their very own gaslamp, then let them have it. they deserve it.

[JDRCRASH]

We certainly could use more greenary to the city.