Open Space Master Planning Needed To Enhance The Region's Public Spaces

Landscape architecture is usually a low priority of most real estate development projects, mostly because the development budget is typically exhausted by the time plans need implementation. If our goal is livability, what does the public lose by not valuing landscape architecture appropriately?

Mia Lehrer

We all have a lot to lose. We architects and planners sometimes feel like we're constantly proselytizing. But, through our extracurricular activities with groups like Tree People, Olive Branches, and Friends of the L.A. River, we think there's a change in attitude starting to emerge. There's more of an appreciation on the part of the city, the Army Corps of Engineers, and other agencies about what some of the natural elements can bring to help in Brownfield mitigation and that, as a by-product, brings livability to a city. So, the passage of Prop.40 and Prop. 50 are both indications that there's a renewed level of respect and appreciation for what landscape architecture and this kind of planning can do for the city.

Mia, The Planning Report has run many interviews with congressmen, planners and developers addressing the livability of the Los Angeles basin. The focus of each is on what must be done in the way of public policy and planning to avoid further degredation of our environment. What are/might firms like yours do to help this region smartly absorb projected growth in population over the next decade the equivalent of two Chicagos?

Mia Lehrer

As a landscape architecture planning firm, we are incredibly well equipped to help solve some of the problems that have been generated over the last few decades by working on open space, planning and joint-use opportunities that exist as the new school and park bonds start coming into play. The re-envisioning of the L.A. River as a park that spans 52 miles of the basin presents a unique opportunity for revitalizing communities. Landscape architecture and landscape planning really is a multidisciplinary profession that deals with environmental issues, natural systems and social issues.

Esther Margulies

One of the things that we've found over and over again in our firm's work is a desperate need for open space in the city and throughout the region. We've been promoting the idea of a citywide master plan for open space and recreation, and have worked on needs assessments looking at the census and demographic information throughout the city.

In our larger view as landscape architects who also use urban design as a tool in every project, we understand the great civic spaces of cities. What we're trying to create after the fact in Los Angeles is a system of boulevard parkways, park plazas, and big open spaces that create collective community space. It isn't the great buildings that create these spaces. Disney Hall is to some extent the courtyard and the forecourts that really bring people together and create a sense of a city with a healthy social system. We're in the business of creating and designing these spaces.

Your firm is currently working on the Vista Hermosa project in Los Angeles' urban core. What's the challenge there?

Mia Lehrer

The challenge is to create a park that will become an integral part of that community's life. This is a community that has been devastated by the lack of schools, the need for busing, and the lack of community parks. The client is the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the community.

The project is on the part of the Belmont site that was originally envisioned as the athletic fields. There still is a large portion of the site that will be part of the new school. However, the extra acreage can be turned into a community park that actually helps engage the community and creates a soul-a soul that the communities felt they had lost in waiting for ten or fifteen years for their high school.

Esther Margulies

With this project, we have the added challenge of dealing with a site that was understood to be a real health hazard. We've been working with LAUSD and various geotechnical and engineering firms to develop a mitigation technique for this site that will allow us to create a very natural place, with a significant pond, wetlands, grotto, and other natural systems. We're also planning a synthetic turf soccer field, which is a product of the community outreach the firm has been engaged with since the conception of the project. We're listening to the community and trying to satisfy their needs and desires.

Let's turn to another project that is charged with balancing livability and economy – the Port of Los Angeles and the proposed Bridge to Breakwaters master planning project. Define the planning team's mission.

Mia Lehrer

We are part of a team of urban designers, engineers and economists working on the Bridge to Breakwater project for the Port of Los Angeles. It's a 300-acre area along the edge of the water from Cabrillo Beach to the Vincent Thomas Bridge on the port property. The idea is to transform this site into a regional waterfront destination featuring cafes, public walkways, parks, and a strong link to the water. The project seeks to build on the existing assets, like the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and the Maritime Museum. The goal is not only to make the area more livable for residents of the port cities, but also to create jobs and improve the community by making this a regional destination.

Esther Margulies

e're trying to create something that doesn't currently exist within the city of Los Angeles-a significant waterfront park system. This project would really make the port a place that could be used by the residents and tourists, shifting the balance from purely a cargo shipping facility to something that serves the community as well.

One of the reasons why we're on this team is we bring a local knowledge base to the project. We're there to help ensure that this project stays grounded in San Pedro's strong local identity.

Another firm engagment is the Amgen campus in Ventura. What is envisioned role for landscape and planning there?

Mia Lehrer

The Amgen campus in Thousand Oaks started out as an industrial office park, but grew quickly as the company grew and succeeded. Years ago, the company came to realize that they needed not only to construct new buildings to accommodate some of their growth, but also start making the campus a more pedestrian friendly place-a place that spoke to the Amgen's mission, which emphasizes the retention of human capital.

This particular project really is all about landscape. An existing building has been demolished and a parking structure will be significantly re-built to create a seven-acre park in the heart of the campus. This is about imbuing the campus with a sense of place through landscape, and some of the great things that landscape architecture can do for place.

Esther Margulies

This project has been part of this ten year planning process for the campus, which is codified in a specific plan. This is Amgen's way of telling the city of Thousand Oaks that they're going to be good neighbors, and that they're going to maintain the bucolic country atmosphere of Thousand Oaks.

We've been entrusted by Johnson-Fain, the ten-year master planners, and the CEO of Amgen, to realize this vision for the campus' open space. It's been a fairly seamless project over the last year and a half, first to develop master planconcepts and now to actually implement and construct them within budget. Hopefully within the next year or so, we'll see them realized, and this will be a site that maintainsand inspires the biotechnology industry in Thousand Oaks.

Camp Bloomfield in Malibu is another firm project. What are its special characteristics, and what are you being asked to bring to this effort.

Mia Lehrer

Camp Bloomfield is a camp we're working on for the Junior Foundation for the Blind. It's in a wonderful little valley in the Santa Monica Mountains up in Malibu that needs to be dealt with very lightly and carefully because it has some beautiful old oak trees and a stream that needs to be protected. At the same time, it's a camp that obviously needs to grow and service the community that will be using it. Our goal has been to help design, with oversight by the project's design architect, Levin and Associates, a camp environment that enhances these children's interaction with nature.

Much of this interview has stressed the positive contributions of landscape architecture to the urban livability. What, by way of reality therapy, typically undermines acceptance and investment in your professional work? Give, in closing, some real world examples.

Esther Margulies

There is a general lack of open space planning in the city, and a lack of respect for the open space that creates a livable community. It is disheartening that we have a Recreation and Parks Department with such a high turnover in its management positions-we can't seem to retain somebody there in a visionary position who can manage the department. The funds are limited , they don't have enough money to repair existing facilities, and they have no master plan that would allow them to even understand where the parks and open spaces need to be created.

Mia Lehrer

We hope that the new generation of schools that LA Unified is going to be building will provide the opportunity to actually create campuses with sustainability in mind. And, we hope that healthy budgets will be available to actually implement some sustainable strategies. In Phase I, it was incredibly frustrating for those of us working on projects to manage to hold on to some better management practices and trees, if nothing else, of a species and caliber that will survive the many children that are going to inhabit and use these open spaces.