Four big-name architecture/landscape architecture firms are competing to design a new park in Downtown LA's Civic Center, just across from City Hall and next door to the enormous Grand Park, on a lot formerly inhabited by homeless people and a horde of feral cats. According to the LA Bureau of Engineering site for the park, the winning team will be chosen sometime in early March—very soon!—so now's probably a good time to take a detailed look at the complete presentations of each firm's vision for the Civic Center's next park.
AECOM
All design proposals are supposed to include a restaurant, but AECOM's is inside a "Paper Plane" building; the Downtown News says that reclaimed water from the eatery (plus underground irrigation) will be used to help irrigate the park.
Brooks + Scarpa Architects
This design's cool, wavy ribbons of grass serve as "natural 'benches," and the park includes an event space instead of a restaurant, which B + S's principal said is likely to be a bigger moneymaker than an eatery.
Eric Owen Moss Architects
The EOMA design has a restaurant from local superchef Bill Chait (whose Redbird is nearby, in the Vibiana Cathedral) and features an amphitheater "carved out of the hillside."
Mia Lehrer + Associates
Seeking to set itself apart from Grand Park ("We are not trying to duplicate the lawn right next door," an ML+A principal tells the DN), this design will have a more hardscape-focused central area with an emphasis on providing plenty of seating for park-goers. The park's restaurant would appear to be "floating" over the amphitheater space below.
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