8 Student Proposals For Reinventing San Pedro's Ports O' Call

As part of the LA Business Council's Los Angeles Architectural Awards (presented yesterday), eight teams of design students competed in a three-day charette for the Julius Shulman Emerging Talent Award. They were "tasked with redesigning and revitalizing the 40-acre Ports O’ Call complex at the Port of Los Angeles into a world-class Los Angeles Waterfront with a thriving retail and commercial center" (Ports O' Call is an aging and sad retail center that the Port is hoping to reinvent as part of its ongoing redevelopment). The schools were: Art Center College of Design, CSU Long Beach, Cal Poly Pomona, Otis College of Art & Design, SCI-Arc, UCLA, USC, and Woodbury. The USC team (Bryn Garrett, Samantha Ng, and Evan Shieh) pulled out the win with a proposal called Urban Cascade: it "encourages new energy along the waterfront by promoting street life and new retail activity, along with waterfront residential areas that help connect the site to the rest of San Pedro. Additional public amenities such as a water park, skate park and exercise areas add vitality and a greater sense of community along the retail boardwalk." Down below, check out a video about the charette process and some of the other proposals.