LA's Destination Crenshaw initiative has revealed an updated opening day for its largest component along with news of $3.4 million in federal grant contribution that will help further shepherd the project towards its eventual completion later this year.

The development’s Sankofa Park segment will now open in the early fall of this year, according to CEO Jason W. Foster. The beautifully-metaphored nod to the eponymous bird of Akan folklore is designed by Perkins&Will’s award-winning Principal and Director of Global Diversity Gabrielle Bullock and includes art installations from heavyweights such as Alison Saar and Kehinde Wiley, along with additional murals and greenspaces that will be completed in the months immediately following its inauguration.

Situated along the northern end of the site on the border of the traditionally arts-centric Leimert Park neighborhood, the park is meant as a gathering space for the larger project, itself intended to “stamp a permanent cultural identity on a major artery of Black L.A.” Institutions such as the Getty Trust have joined L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority in backing the initiative, which has also benefitted from a $2.4 million fundraising drive led by Issa Rae and superstar NBA swingman DeMar DeRozan.

“This project, which is for us and by us, illustrates how Black Angelenos are investing in our own neighborhoods, supporting Black businesses and entrepreneurs,” Rae said in a statement. “We're simultaneously honoring the cradle of Black arts and entertainment — which has historically been in the heart of South L.A.”

The park’s design will feature a viewing platform along with storytelling installations, art, and landscaping designed with the help of Studio-MLA and several other smaller firms. Its surrounding streetscape was inspired by a notion of “Grow Where You’re Planted” in a nod to the city’s African diaspora and the African Giant Star Grass used as bedding on slave ships in the Middle Passage. It is a very well-integrated homage to the community’s Southern forebears, and, as Perkins&Will says, is “destined to be a space for celebrations, protests, and demonstrations of grief and peaceful healing.”

“As Mayor of LA, I am even prouder to see Sankofa Park open. This exceptional initiative, I believe, will be a model for other communities throughout the United States,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass expressed. “Destination Crenshaw, under the leadership of Councilmember Harris-Dawson and members of the South Los Angeles community, is bringing much-needed cultural tourism and economic development to Crenshaw Boulevard.”

“This is not just a passion project for Perkins&Will but rather one that reinforces our focus on just and equitable design,” Bullock commented about the project finally. “It emerged from a very intensive and intentional community engagement process, which resulted in an authentic design created with the community. It has reinforced our social impact ethos as a design practice. We look forward immensely to seeing the community claim it as their own.”

Updates on its progress and construction can be found here.