Ambitious Park 101 Project Proposes Small First Step at Union Station
AECOM
The Park 101 project would create a green cap over the 101 freeway, restoring linkages between Downtown neighborhoods and creating development opportunities.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Creating a green space that would run from the Los Angeles River to Grand Avenue, Park 101 is nothing if not ambitious.
Every journey begins with a first step, though, and project planners hope that a $20 million reworking of the connection between Union Station and El Pueblo can be the piece that starts Downtown toward its new park.
With the support of Caltrans and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), a team from planning and engineering firm AECOM are currently developing a strategy and next steps for the Park 101 concept, which was first unveiled back in June of 2008. The goal of the step is to "tie infrastructure investment and park/open space development together to deliver [the] biggest bang for buck."
While planning and financing for the entire park project would certainly take years, the project team sees Union Station as the place where Park 101 can connect to other massive projects just getting underway.
"You have an L.A. River project that has to start somewhere. You have a Union Station / High Speed Rail that has to start somewhere. And we have a park project," explained Vaughan Davies, a Principal and Director of Urban Design at AECOM. "So isn't there a way to develop that phase one nexis?"
The first step would be to reshape the driveways and walks that enter Union Station, making it more inviting for pedestrians to travel from the station into El Pueblo. A second phase would then continue that walk across the 101 freeway into the Civic Center, potentially making the block between Main and Los Angeles the first to get capped.
The team will be presenting its plan to the public this Thursday, May 13, with a community meeting and open house before the Downtown Art Walk. It will run from 4 to 6pm, and will be held inside the Caltrans Building at 100 S. Main.
J-M on May 11, 2010, at 01:44PM – #1
I still think this is a great idea. Capping the freeway and greening the area would be a huge step forward to creating a bigger and more cohesive Downtown.
Guest on May 11, 2010, at 04:24PM – #2
I'm all for this idea. I always thought the North side of the 101 wasn't downtown? This would definitely change that thinking.
Guest on May 12, 2010, at 03:00AM – #3
I personally have an issue with this plan, but maybe someone can talk me down here.
WHY is this being pursued when there is a perfectly neglected Civic Park a block and a half away? How will LA fund the ongoing maintenance of this park to keep it from going to shit?
How will this reconnect El Pueblo to Downtown? Wouldn't something similar to what Columbus, OH has done with their "retail freeway caps" be more effective in that goal, and wouldn't those improvements pay for themselves instead of being a fiscal liability? Also limits expenses in emissions handling...
patrick manpous on May 12, 2010, at 06:22AM – #4
Here is a link to the retail freeway caps used in Colubmus...
http://sites.google.com/site/freewaycaps/what-portland-cn-learn-from-florence-italy-and-columbus-ohio/photos-of-i-670-cap
Tom Benedek on May 12, 2010, at 08:53AM – #5
I love the Columbus Ohio approach. The Broad Museum should go on top of the freeway as part of a Ponte Vecchio complex and the land on Grand Avenue ought to be a greenspace.
Guest on May 12, 2010, at 01:05PM – #6
I just think the Columbus, OH approach would better reintegrate the urban fabric, would almost entirely hide the freeway from ped traffic, and would be soooooo much cheaper to construct, while resulting in leasable, taxable space that has a good shot at generating income.
Downtownie on May 13, 2010, at 12:30PM – #7
This is probably short term thinking but I think we should welcome any and all greenery to our neighborhoods. Any new park is a welcome development to me!
Guest on May 14, 2010, at 04:09PM – #8
All funding should go into exsisting parks. If and when things get better then I can get on board. Right now I just want grass in the Pershing pet park and the City can't afford that even.
Sandie Richards on May 15, 2010, at 03:48PM – #9
Love this idea! Can't wait to see how it unfolds!
Guest on May 17, 2010, at 12:54PM – #10
Maybe no one has noticed but we're already taxed and paying higher government fees than ever before and local, state and federal government still talks about being out of money.
I, for one, am not supportive of any new money pit constructed under the supervision of the city, county, state or fed agency.
This project is a great idea but in reality it will end up costing BILLIONS that could be better used right now to pay for basic services that are getting cut.
Dream about it, plan it, cost it out but don't expect any mass momentum for a new public project like this when basic services are getting cut at a time when people are paying government more for doing less.
David McBane on May 17, 2010, at 05:53PM – #11
To those commentators who are advocating putting this project on hold, you have to remember that today's economic problems are temporary (in the long-term sense). This idea, even if the funding was available today, would take years to complete. So the right time to start planning for this project is now so that when our economy gets better and there are funds available, this project will be in the position to move forward. If you wait until the economy is better before starting the project, you'll miss the good times because you'll still be in the planning stages.
Guest on May 18, 2010, at 01:30PM – #12
The first concern I would have is how the covered stretch of highway is to be ventilated, unless they are going for a Holland Tunnel-like result. With that said, this is an ambitious project, and all parties involved had best be careful of how much $ is to be spent, how exactly it will be spent, and from where these funds are coming from. Public or private, if it is put to proper use and is constructed with public attendance and ecological appreciation in mind, it will be a benefit to all of LA. They had better not just throw their wallet at any one party, as they always tend to do.
As far as the current parks losing program support, it is a current state of the market. These new projects are not to blame entirely, as new projects will always pop up. But again, if the heads of the project are not careful where every cent is spent, and if they are not frugal enough, such as building a monument to artistic mediocrity (cough... Pershing Square bell tower...), it will again be a sad state of affairs. But when has LA's gov't bodies given a crap about that?
BTW, someone needs to water the LAPD building lawn.
Guest on May 19, 2010, at 11:18PM – #13
"If you wait until the economy is better before starting the project, you'll miss the good times because you'll still be in the planning stages."
Plus, the cost of constructing this park will probably skyrocket when the economy improves.
Hans Tan on June 21, 2010, at 01:56PM – #14
Can't wait for this to be finished. This will be a great help for all of us. I'm very glad they are still pushing through with this project. By the way if you guys need computer or laptop repair or data recovery please visit us at 11322 Santa Monica Blvd Los Angeles or call us at (310) 966-9099 or (310) 966-6766. Computer Palace - Sales Service & Repair in Los Angeles
Guest on June 21, 2010, at 10:06PM – #15
Cover it over? No way! The 101 through Downtown could become LA.'s Avenue of The Giants, a backdrop for movies and commercials. Why not embrace the dynamism? Carve grottoes into those blank concrete walls and texturize all of the blankness. Each grotto could hold a larger than life representation - of John Warner, William Wolfskill, Gaspar de Portola, Antonio Coronel, Antonio Maria Lugo, Jim Morrison, Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Charles F. Lummis, Carolyn Severance, Louis Vignes, Thomas Tally or Samuel Goldwyn. The list is enormous.
Yes, widen those bridges and draw pedestrians with imaginative overlooks and commercial Pont Vechios. Hanging gardens. Falls and cascades - what could Wet Design Inc. cook up? What could Stanley Kubrick have cooked up for this place as a setting for filmic Sci-Fi?
We're all too obsessed with creating new green space, landscape that needs to be maintained and if citizens and visitors or office workers aren't drawn or impressed enough to return again and again with friends or family or to simply while away the hours on a Saturday or Sunday, then you've got a warren for the homeless on your hands. That is what occurred with the Freeway Park across the I-5 in downtown Seattle. There must be innate vitality. Covering the entire freeway with a solid lid, landscaping it and maintaining it ad-infinitum could be a very costly venture. We've got to program in vitality or we're shooting ourselves in the foot. The program is everything.
BobbyD on January 17, 2011, at 09:47AM – #16
How much is going to be spent on easements and buying properties and who is going to get kicked off their properties(if ever)and how much property tax/sales tax is going to lost by taking properties/businesses from contributing to the community with$ $$$$$? Great for some($$$$$) and bad for others($$$$$).