XL

The 2020 Los Angeles River Master Plan

by Gehry Partners and Olin.

L/M

The Site - Parcel 13, Frame 3: Central Plain

Adjacent to the neighborhoods of Bell Gardens, Downey, Lynwood, Cudahy, and South Gate, the designated site lies perpendicularly between the Los Angeles River and Rio Hondo, crossing the former as it extends to the east and meeting the bank of the latter to the west; this piece of urban fabric is further layered by the intersecting Interstate 710 and Firestone Boulevard (Route 42), providing the main point of access to the site. Meanwhile, not too far downstream from the site, the SELA Cultural Center is located near the LA River - Rio Hondo confluence, weaving together world-class design and high-caliber programming from across Los Angeles County. This, together with Hollydale Regional Park, forms a cultural complex with which this project upstream wishes to interact, becoming a part of the influential sphere of activities while pivoting on the organizational and symbolic locus of the confluence. With the confluence as the focal point, this project aims to remediate and rehabilitate the underutilized industrial land while reclaiming the opportunities to transform this site into a meeting ground of community life, urban access, waterway, and natural systems.

S

The Project - Southgate Community Park

Centered on the premise of bringing back connectivity to neighborhoods divided by the utility corridor and urban infrastructure, this project demonstrates a crop of what could become an ever-spanning natural and recreational utility corridor that provides a well-designed venue for community events, public programs and workshops, family picnics as well as individual meditation. Taking full advantage of its sectional layers, this local "strip-park" offers a wide variety of indoor/outdoor, warm/cold, well-lit/shaded spaces for flexibility in forms and functions. The undulating landscape is anchored by two superstructures which respectively hold the programs of an information/event center (adjacent to the observation tower), and a subterranean office for the maintenance of the park functions. At the scale of the city, these two ‘buildings’ interlocking with the exterior ground would make up a local node of activities, which is then tied to other nodes along the corridor through an uninterrupted system of in-site trails and roads with parking spaces, offering a fast-moving lane to a promenade whose cadence would otherwise be slow, periodic, and intricate.