Theoretical Design for LA’s Central Park to Be Unveiled This Friday

101_EDAW.jpg
The 101, Today

By now most of you have read the opinion piece from last Friday’s Times that called for a "Central Park" for Los Angeles.  The piece by
Vaughan Davies, director of urban planning for EDAW’s LA office, is just the first step in a campaign to show Angelenos what opportunities exist in the "Big Trench" area bordering, Chinatown, Angelino Heights, El Pueblo, Boyle Heights, Civic Center and Little
Tokyo.

The next step will be this Friday sat 5 P.M. in the CALTRANS Building’s plaza, when planning students from around the world present the challenges and solutions in capping the 101 Freeway and turning it into a large, urban park similar in size and character to New York’s Central Park.  The students are part of EDAW’s, summer intern program and have worked with staff from CALTRANS, the Los Angeles Planning Department, the Metro, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the
Southern California Assn. of Governments, City Council members and even the Mayor’s Office to develop this plan.

To read more about EDAW’s summer charrette program, click here.

Image: EDAW

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Park 101 Community Outreach Meeting

By Damien Newton |
The Park 101 District is an innovative plan for capping the 101 Freeway in the Downtown area. It will provide opportunities for the creation of new signature urban boulevards along First Street, Cesar Chavez Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, Alameda Avenue, and Grand Avenue that will become models for future great streets throughout Los Angeles. This area […]

A Hearing and a Meeting on Boyle Heights Streets This Week

By Sahra Sulaiman |
The Boyle Heights/El Sereno/Lincoln Heights communities logged a victory last fall when USC decided that they would not only reroute a road originally planned to connect Norfolk St. with Soto through Hazard Park (left), but that they would also vacate claims to that portion of the land by handing it over to the Dept. of […]

No Dead Rock Stars or Lakers Titles Needed for the Big Parade

By Damien Newton |
This Saturday morning, a group of urban hikers will gather at 7:00 A.M. at the Angel’s Flight Stairway for the Big Parade, a hiking event being organized by Streetsblog contributor Dan Koeppel, best known in this part of the blogosphere for his piece on L.A.’s DIY bicycle culture.  Despite it’s long route, we’re not talking […]

Park 101’s Freeway Lid for a Walkable Downtown Los Angeles

By Joe Linton |
In the 1950’s, the 101 Freeway was built through downtown Los Angeles, cutting off the city’s historic plaza, Union Station and Chinatown from the rest of the downtown civic center. This week, Angelenos have a chance to learn more about an ambitious plan that could restore much of  the fabric of downtown, improve walking and bicycling connections, […]

Highlighting a sense of Place in Leimert Park

By James Rojas |
The Leimert Park model is a thought provoking interactive diorama of this community that the public can use as tool to facilitate their urban planning ideas and fantasies for transportation, open space, housing, architecture and design. Through creating this model I was able to explore the unique topography, vide, and urban form of Leimert Park, […]

Plan for LA’s Central Park Showing at 7th and Fig

By Damien Newton |
Last month, a group of graduate students working with city staff designed a model of what downtown Los Angeles would look like if the 101 Freeway were capped and Los Angeles undertook creating its version of Central Park.  While some planners scoffed at the notion, one email I received joked that it looked like a […]