Los Angeles State Historic Park (aka the Cornfield) has been closed since last April for a massive makeover and expansion that will bring on-site parking and bathrooms, plus wetlands and dedicated space for a farmer's market to the popular public park. The whole process was supposed to wrap in about a year, but now the reopening's been kicked back to November 2015, says the Downtown News, as a result of contaminants found on the land, and a surprise excavation of part of a brick building that no one even knew was there (they found lots of cool old stuff from the time when the land was a Southern Pacific railyard).
The toxic materials—heavy metals "found in several layers of underground ash"—were decades-old byproducts of the trains that traveled through the park in the middle of the last century. Despite the setbacks, the project has remained on budget (at $20 million) and many parts have already been completed, including a pedestrian bridge and the grading for the two future acres of wetlands.
· Soil Contamination Delays Renovation at Los Angeles State Historic Park [DN]
· Here's How Cornfield Park Will Look After Its Huge Makeover [Curbed LA]
· Fascinating Turn-of-the-Century Trash Found During Construction on Chinatown's Cornfield Park [Curbed LA]
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