Grand Intervention

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I read Martin Kaplan’s opinion piece on the Civic Center park over the weekend, but didn’t realize until I received an email just now that the Lear Center has set up a website to receive submitted park ideas – Grand Intervention.

The Los Angeles Times has offered its pages, and the Lear Center its Web site, for such a competition. Proposals can address landscape design, technology, traffic and transportation, event programming and permitting, and more – any or all aspects that come into play in a world-class park of the future. The best submissions will appear here on the Lear Center Web site, and ultimately in the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

It’s an interesting idea. The photo tour is a little light – it should really include a comprehensive view of the current park and its features. Some good schematics would also seem to be in order. Hopefully they can add that kind of thing and really start to get a dialog going.

Though this is a sort of contest – the “best” submitted ideas will appear online and in print – I’d love to see them engage feedback on an ongoing basis through the site. Don’t take ideas and then just spring them on interested parties all at once. Let ideas get feedback and be refined as the process occured.

Thanks to Marissa of terra non firma for letting me know about the site.