Renderings: Wilmington’s industrial waterfront will be transformed into 20-acre park

Two components of a major project along Wilmington’s waterfront are moving towards becoming a reality.

The latest renderings from the Port of Los Angeles show where two new park spaces—the Avalon Promenade and Gateway and the Wilmington Waterfront Promenade—will soon sit. The sites are occupied by industrial buildings now, including some storage tanks for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

The 9-acre Wilmington Waterfront Promenade will be right along the water, in the area around Banning’s Landing.

The $24-million revamp will bring a host of new amenities, including a 4-acre event space and a playground, says Michael Galvin, the port’s director of commercial and waterfront real estate. The park’s design is helmed by Sasaki Associates with landscape architecture by Studio MLA.

North of that site, the $53-million Avalon Promenade and Gateway is planned. Spanning 13 acres, the T.Y. Lin International-designed project will include an entry plaza with a giant sundial, sports court, outdoor classroom, a native plant garden, a “history walk” that incorporates important dates in the history of Wilmington, and parking.

The sundial at the entry to the Avalon Promenade and Gateway (top left), the bridge that would connect this park to the Wilmington Waterfront area (top right), another view of the bridge (bottom left), the green space at the Avalon park (bottom right).

Galvin says both projects will be built on separate but similar timelines, starting in 2019. Construction on both is expected to take about two years.

There are big plans farther down the waterfront in San Pedro, where the Ports O’ Call Marketplace is being remade into the San Pedro Public Market, a new retail and restaurant hub.