Gehry's involvement is a potential turning point in the decades-long movement to transform the concrete-lined waterway that winds through the heart of the Los Angeles Basin. [...]
it appears to be a broad reworking of the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan that L.A. city officials adopted in 2007 [...]
the new plan is getting a cold reception from the community of activists who have helped draw attention over the years to what was once a forlorn environmental cause.
— latimes.com
In an exclusive published earlier today by the Los Angeles Times, Peter Jamison takes a hard look at Frank Gehry's newly-announced collaboration with city officials to revitalize the LA River. Details are still very scant at this time, and Gehry's office has been tight-lipped about what their plans actually look like, but reportedly they'll encompass the whole 52-mile stretch.
While not much of the plan is public yet, there isn't much to celebrate so far. Not only are critics suspicious of Gehry's secrecy, but also feel that any shift in river redevelopment plans now could compromise the amount of federal funding promised to the $1.4B revitalization plan already attached to a portion of river. Nonprofit Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR) has chosen not to endorse the project, deriding Gehry's appointment as the same kind of top-down planning that led to the river being encased in concrete in the middle of the last century – "[turning] a meandering alluvial river into a notoriously unsightly drainage channel."
Archinectors also don't seem too excited about Gehry's involvement. In the forum thread discussing this same article, sameolddoctor says: "Oh my god, please tell me this is not true. We have some very good plans already for the river. Bringing the Old FOG(ie) will ruin it and, of course increase land costs." For an added jab, citizen commented "Too late. There are miles of chain link along the river already..."
For past news on the LA River:
1 Comment
I posted something similar (and shorter) on another thread, but I think the slelction of FOG to be the poster child for river development is an inappropriate one. I say this primarily because I can't think of a sinlge project of his that addresses time and change as design tools. He did transform his first house, but that was more of a top-down renovation based on interests and whim. It would have been nice to have seen LA embrace the problem as it is- one of landscape and not just architecture wrapped around landscape.
I mentioned James Corner/Field Operations for his ability to think over large scale- both physical and temporal. This is an important factor to anticipate, given that it is likely that this new version of the river will not have matured by the time the designer is dead. But there are other qualified individuals.
Michael Van Valkenburgh has completed master plans for projects in St. Louis and Toronto which closely ally public space with water with a keen understanding of how hydrology can be leveraged as a design element. Kate Orff/Scape deveoped an incremenatal approach to water quality and economics using fabricated oysters beds in New York with an understading that a river is also it's watershed.
Then there are more "local" landscape architecture firms like SWA who has completed similar projects in Houston on the Buffalo river. Or Fletcher Studio, who has already done work on the LA river, linking the river sytem to urban networks to inform decisions regarding public space and opportunites to engage what is now being seen as an asset.
Regardless, the dice have been tossed and scupltural forms will soon be used to represent nature, but I hope that Gehry recognizes that a project at this scale- a landscape- requires more that shapes placed upon a surface. It requires a familiarity with the patterns and texture embedded within the surface itself to create innovative proposals.
It would be a shame for this to turn into a historical approach to city making, versus being an opportunity to write the preface for the next LA story.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.