Archinect - News

Copper thieves keep unplugging LA's 'Ribbon of Light' on the Sixth Street Bridge

2023-12-23T12:00:00-05:00

A large swath of the 6th Street Bridge, known as the “Ribbon of Light” because of its illuminated arches of color across the Los Angeles River, has gone dark. Copper wire thieves are to blame, city officials said, and it’s unclear when the lights for the Instagram-popular bridge will be fixed.

Other notable incidents include a deadly fall and several social media-driven impromptu street takeovers that caused damages to its road surface just weeks after the Michael Maltzan design opened in July of 2022. The damage extends over a third of the bridge.

Councilmember Kevin de León's office personally phoned in the report and says it adds to a total of $500,000 worth of stolen copper within his 14th District. As the LA Times reported, there were no less than 1,200 active copper capers across the city in the past year alone.

Meanwhile, underneath the bridge, an $82 million public space regeneration is underway from Hargreaves Jones.

$82 million park space beneath LA's new Sixth Street Viaduct has broken ground

2023-08-09T08:00:00-04:00

Just over one year after the Sixth Street Viaduct replacement made its debut, Los Angeles city officials have commenced work on 12 acres of new park spaces at the foot of the $588-million bridge.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on August 5th for the $82 million project, also known as the Sixth Street Park, Arts, and River Connectivity project (PARC). Landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Jones led the design.

Previously on Archinect: Take a look at new Iwan Baan photos of LA's Sixth Street Viaduct ahead of its grand opening

The park, which sits beneath the recently completed Sixth Street Viaduct, will include seven acres of open space on the east side of the Los Angeles River in Boyle Heights and five acres of space in the Arts District on the west side.

The Boyle Heights section will feature grass fields, picnic areas, a splash pad, event space, and sports fields and courts. The Arts District section will include a new arts plaza and river gateway, which will host spaces for performances, a café, and restrooms. Construction on PARC is expected to last around two-and-a-half years.

The Sixth Street Viaduct is lit, and it’s making people in Los Angeles a little too rowdy

2022-07-26T12:42:00-04:00

For the third consecutive night, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Twitter that it was forced to shut down the 6th Street Viaduct, saying it was due to “questionable activity.” [...] The 3,500-foot bridge that connects Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles has been open to traffic for just two weeks, but it’s quickly become a popular spot for street takeovers, illegal racing, dangerous stunts and vandalism.

The 'party people' took over Michael Maltzan’s brand new bridge redesign within hours of its July 9th opening. Some reports indicated that at least 250 people gathered last weekend for a second night of what the LAPD called "illegal activity," which resulted in arrests and the attempted bombing of a KTLA reporter live on air. Pro skater Meklo Rivera pulled up later to showcase some risky moves on one of the span’s many inviting concrete arches, but the cops eventually shut it down.

Some are framing this as an organic, car-free outpouring of community. In a hard-line rebuke of their viewpoint, Mayoral frontrunner Kevin de Leon said: "Angelenos deserve architecturally stunning projects in their own neighborhood, and we won’t be deterred by a few scofflaws."

Take a look at new Iwan Baan photos of LA's Sixth Street Viaduct ahead of its grand opening

2022-07-08T15:27:00-04:00

Concluding a multi-year construction effort that began with the demolition of the original 1930s Sixth Street Bridge in 2016 and saw the new structure begin to rise one year later, the City of Los Angeles is set to celebrate the opening of the largest bridge project in its history with a slew of public events this weekend, July 9th and 10th.

Spanning 3,500 feet in length, the new $588 million Michael Maltzan-designed Sixth Street Viaduct reestablishes a vital connection between Downtown LA, the Arts District, and the historic Boyle Heights neighborhood by expanding the focus of transportation from merely car traffic to also prioritize pedestrians and cyclists, offering wide sidewalks as well as 10-foot-wide Class IV protected bike lanes along each side of the viaduct. The opening of the ambitious PARC project (Park, Arts, River, and Connectivity), overseen by landscape architects Hargreaves Jones, is anticipated for 2024-25.

Photo by Iwan Baan, courtesy Michael Maltzan Architecture...

Long-awaited Sixth Street Viaduct is set to open on July 9th

2022-06-16T21:00:00-04:00

Your eyes do not deceive you: after six years, construction is set to come to a close next month for the new Sixth Street Viaduct. The $588-million structure, which spans 3,500 feet across the L.A. River between Boyle Heights and the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, will open to the public in a two-day celebration on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10, 14th District Councilmember Kevin de Leon announced this week.

The largest bridge project in the history of Los Angeles is finally here. Designed by a team including architect Michael Maltzan and HNTB, the Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement Project sees the creation of a new bridge, dubbed “The Ribbon of Light”, to replace the original 1932 structure. The new structure’s distinguishing feature is its LED-lit arches that reference the iconic metal arches of its predecessor. In addition to restoring an important connection between the Arts District on the west side of the Los Angeles River and the historic neighborhood of Boyle Heights on the east side, the bridge provides new sidewalks and protected bike lanes.

Previously on Archinect: Oliver Wainwright on this summer’s most-anticipated infrastructure project

With the new viaduct complete, the Bureau of Engineering will now move on to constructing a 12-acre park underneath the structure. This $40 million endeavor will provide access to the Los Angeles River, public art, recreational programming, a...

Oliver Wainwright on this summer’s most-anticipated infrastructure project

2022-05-26T14:07:00-04:00

Maltzan has taken the twin arcs and multiplied them fivefold across the 3,500ft length, hopping over railway tracks and roads as the viaduct makes its way eastwards. The result is almost surreal: seen from either end, it looks like the traces of two bouncing balls, ping-ponging their way across the valley, the arches rising to different heights according to what they are jumping over.

The Guardian critic took a tour of Downtown LA's soon-to-be-completed new Sixth Street Viaduct with architect Michael Maltzan, who said the $588 million project’s “real challenge” was to “come up with something as iconic as the original.”

Maltzan said the preservation of the bridge’s original iconic arches was a focal point for him and his team (“they were so much part of the civic memory of the city”) and added that the capacity for the project to serve as a bridge for the different social divisions that have long roiled the newly-conjoined neighborhoods was as important as its use as public infrastructure.

LA's new Sixth Street Viaduct is about to change common perspectives on public urban space

2022-03-28T12:34:00-04:00

Once it opens, construction will start on public playing fields, gathering areas, green spaces and a dog park at the foot of the bridge on the Boyle Heights side, and a performance stage and green spaces on the Arts District side. And cyclists can gear up for the fall unveiling of a 10-foot-wide bicycle lane going both directions on the bridge, which they can access from the bike lane at the river via a steep spiraling ramp. It is a ride that will take some energy.

LA architect Michael Maltzan spoke about his desire for the reborn cinematic landmark to be received as a public space that is suis generis within the available Downtown and Boyle Heights vistas, which are mostly blocked by hilly areas and typified by a lack of public space.

“The bridge is really meant to be a civic armature, to turn infrastructure into something that weaves together the city and connects communities. It's really going to be an observatory,” he told KCRW's Frances Anderton. “It gives you a different image, a different picture, a different view, a different vantage of the city that you think you know very well.”

Previously on Archinect: LA's famed 6th Street Viaduct now has its first span in place

Maltzan also discussed his built-in challenge for Angeleno cyclists, a group he counts himself among that has exploded since the beginning of the pandemic and plays a pivotal role in the city’s comprehensive 2035 mobility plan.

“You have to put in a bit of an effort to earn ...

LA's famed 6th Street Viaduct now has its first span in place

2022-01-12T19:39:00-05:00

A major milestone has taken place in the Michael Maltzan Architecture-led effort to replace Los Angeles’ iconic 6th Street Viaduct.

Construction Drive is reporting that the falsework has been removed and the first of ten spans successfully installed on the $588 million project that will eventually connect Boyle Heights to the Downtown Arts District. The installation paves the way for the disruptive six-year-long build’s much-anticipated completion, which is still on track for the end of the summer.

The bridge is one of the largest such construction projects to ever take place in the city and is seen as an important step in the connectivity improvements of the Boyle Heights community. Engineers will now begin work closing the superstructure before they can start on the installation of hangers for the next span, according to a press release from the international engineering concern COWI, that is leading the process.

“If you consider each arch span as an individual bridge, then this...

A Brief History Of Boyle Heights, In 6 Landmarks

2019-11-11T17:52:38-05:00

"a 'melting pot' area and is literally honeycombed with diverse and subversive racial elements. It is seriously doubted whether is a single block in the area which does not contain detrimental racial elements, and there are very few districts are not hopelessly heterogeneous in type of improvement and quality of maintenance."

"By the early 20th century, Boyle Heights had become a multi-ethnic enclave. World events had led to an influx of immigrants from Mexico, Russia and other parts of the United States. But the neighborhood's development wasn't simply due to population growth. Racist and xenophobic practices dictated life in Los Angeles, everything from where you could live to what jobs you were likely to get to where you could be buried. For people of color and recent immigrants, this meant that not every neighborhood was hospitable or even open to them."
By Liz OHANESIAN

Raising taxes was the easy part

2017-11-13T18:34:00-05:00

For homeless advocates who had been glowing after November, the unanimous vote in August blocking the project by a Los Angeles City Council land use committee, headed by Mr. Huizar, was a discouraging setback. It was also a reminder that some of the toughest battles lie ahead as Los Angeles moves from the task of persuading voters to raise money for the homeless to the logistics of getting the money spent.

Adam Nagourney reports in from L.A., where homeless advocates and neighborhood activists are fighting over implementation of HHH (a $1.2 billion effort to build housing for the homeless). NIMBYs or concerned citizens? Professor Tim Iglesias responded "it will require sustained political will to manage the inevitable local opposition to building supportive housing throughout L.A".

Meanwhile, there is a revival of Hotel Hipness in the city, as "elements of the once-lost glittering age are re-emerging".

Los Angeles is giving away 1,000 pieces of its demolished 6th Street Bridge

2016-08-01T19:21:00-04:00

Missing L.A.’s iconic, historic 6th Street Bridge? Never fear – soon you may be able to keep a piece of it for yourself. At “Rock Day L.A.,” an Aug. 13 event [...], officials will be handing out around 1,000 pieces of the demolished bridge for anyone to take home [...] Demolition crews have been steadily dismantling the bridge since February, after an alkali silica reaction in the concrete, known as “concrete cancer,” forced the city to move forward with a plan to replace it.

Previously in the Archinect news:

Contemporary art + gentrification = 'artwashing'?

2016-07-22T13:16:00-04:00

Artwashing. What a great new political watchword. As in, watch out that your neighbourhood doesn’t get “artwashed” too. Just look how Tate Modern has wrecked London and how the Guggenheim trashed Bilbao. Get away, ye galleries! Let’s keep urban wastelands as bleak as they already are! It’s a neat reversal of the thinking that has seen cities all over the world embrace art galleries, museums and biennials in pursuit of regeneration.

The editorial hones in on struggles by residents of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights to push back against a rapid influx of galleries, which they view as the avant-garde of gentrification.

For more on the community's efforts to resist becoming the next Silverlake/Echo Park/Culver City/etc., check out these links:

Boyle Heights activists want all art galleries to GTFO of their neighborhood

2016-07-15T17:57:00-04:00

"We’re not against art or culture," [says Boyle Heights activist Maga Miranda.] "...But the art galleries are part of a broader effort by planners and politicians and developers who want to artwash gentrification." "We’re saying that they need to make a bigger effort to amplify the voices of the people that are gonna be most affected by this, and that doesn’t happen to be artists in this situation. It happens to be people who can’t afford to live here anymore."

Amid widespread gentrification in LA, activists in Boyle Heights have been scrutinizing the art galleries that set up shop there in recent years — including significant spaces like Self Help Graphics, which helped put the Eastside neighborhood on the cultural map. While activists want to prevent developers from taking control and “artwashing gentrification”, some gallery owners have expressed mixed reactions. The debate gets even more convoluted considering that some activists are also working artists.

How a group of Boyle Heights residents are fighting gentrification

2016-04-19T20:32:00-04:00

A realtor who invited clients to tour the neighbourhood for bargain properties and enjoy “artisanal treats” felt the backlash within hours. “I can’t help but hope that your 60-minute bike ride is a total disaster and that everyone who eats your artisanal treats pukes immediately,” said one message. “Stay outta my fucking hood,” said another. Fearing violence, the realtor cancelled the event. [...] Welcome to Boyle Heights – or not, depending on how locals view you.

For more from the front lines of urban gentrification, check out past Archinect articles:

Take a look at "6," an experimental documentary that memorializes the recently-demolished Sixth Street Viaduct in LA

2016-02-11T18:35:00-05:00

These days, it’s hard to think clearly about the Los Angeles River. Once the lifeline of the city and, before that, the Tongva people, the river was paved in the early 20th century following a series of devastating floods and then – at least according to a well-worn narrative – forgotten by the public.

After years of potamic amnesia, or so the story goes, Los Angeles suddenly remembered its river, finding in the thin stream a possible answer to both its growing thirst and perpetual identity crises. Now, nobody seems to talk about much else besides “our forgotten river”. In a sense, the LA River is the ecological inverse of Kim Kardashian: famous for being not-famous.

Of course, endless editorializing belies this apparent obscurity. It wasn’t just Frank Gehry’s arrival that heralded the return of the LA River to public attention, or the concatenation of activists and designers that preceded him. In a way, it had never really been forgotten at all. After all, the river has appeared i...

The Forgotten History of L.A.'s Failed Freeway Revolt

2014-07-23T14:34:00-04:00

The story of Boyle Heights reminds us that urban highway teardowns don't always end in victory. [...] "What we don't know, however, is the story of the losers, the urban men and women who fought the freeway, unsuccessfully, on the conventional terms of political struggle, who weren't able to pack up and move on, and who channeled expressive cultural traditions to register their grievances against the presence of unwanted infrastructure."