River LA, formerly the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation, has posted a video interview with Frank Gehry about his work on the LA River revitalization project. The nonprofit organization works to build public support for the project.
“I think when I started it I had trepidation,” Gehry begins. “I had the feeling that it was more major than I was thinking of it.”
He goes on the explain that “the river is a complicated organism”, and therefore the project has mainly comprised in-depth research up to this point. “Like any design problem I had to really study it,” he states.
According to Gehry, a quarter of Californians live within 30 miles of the river, which underscores both its importance and potential. “To ignore this is to ignore one of the great resources of the region,” he states.
The appointment of Gehry as the lead architect of the LA river revitalization has been controversial. Long-time advocates for the project have expressed feeling left out of the decision, which some believe is more a PR-move than anything else. Likely in part in response to this criticism, Gehry and his studio have published their research, which is available here, and worked hard to gather community input.
Watch the video here:
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5 Comments
This sounds like the perfect project for Gehry. I hope he's successful.
A complex hydrological ecosystem layered through one of the more challenging urban conditions in the world. Yeah, obviously research is important...
To be clear, the vast majority of what has been published on the LA River Index is not research done by the Gehry team or the River Corp. It is previously existing research, compiled in a pretty package.
disillusioned old kook - he would be the worst person work on that project, the last thing the LA river needs is some disconnected formalist shitting out some useless architectural garbage. Only thing he is good for is PR, they should hire an environmentally conscious LA to head that whole project up and be done with it.
ZasF, while there was of course plenty of previous research, "Gehry and his studio have published their research" gives impression he/they did their own.
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