For most of its history, Los Angeles has suffered from large-scale planning that has been singular in its intention – from water management to highway implementation to neighborhood division. These solutions have consequently had negative effects upon much of our natural environment: wasting resources, destroying habitat, and ultimately separating Angelenos’ connection to place and role within our indigenous ecology and urban situation.
The Piggyback Yard presents an opportunity to redesign a significant, disturbed site that epitomizes such singular large-scale planning in the hopes of addressing the problems associated with both natural conditions (watershed management, habitat restoration, functioning ecology) and urban conditions (connectivity, community empowerment, economy). By analyzing the contextual elements of these conditions separately and together, we realized that actions must happen at various scales and with the participation of diverse stake holders in order to have a significant impact.
We identified these contexts as a series of interwoven systems and therefore focused on enhancing and bettering not only our site as separate from others, but our site in relation to the greater water, open space, connectivity and community systems. The end result resurrects marginalized areas, builds upon synergies of key places, and reconfigures existing infrastructure in order to maximize value in all regards.
Water
The Los Angeles River is a seasonal river that collects the erratic run-off from an 834-square-mile watershed area, at times causing serious damages to the communities on its banks. In the 1940’s, the river channel was lined with concrete in the hopes of mitigating the river’s flooding nature, but as the watershed has become more heavily urbanized and covered with impermeable surfaces, the amount of water flowing into the River has increased to the limit of the capabilities of the decades-old design.
The Piggyback Yard is at roughly the halfway point of the River’s 52-mile run, concealed through the central city area by industry, infrastructure, concrete and fencing. This 125-acre parcel is one of the few single-owner sites left that is large enough to make a significant contribution by diverting water out of the course of the river and treating onsite. Opportunities for system-wide improvement here lie in the ability of the Yard to affect all aspects of water conditions downstream.
The PBy proposal to revitalize the River realizes the goals of the City’s Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan while raising awareness of the River’s presence in Angelenos’ everyday life, thus recruiting and initiating thousands of new River stewards. Now serving as the second largest detention area along the River, the Yard diverts hundreds of thousands of cubic-feet of water during peak flows, lessening the chances of inundation in downstream neighborhoods such as Vernon, Compton, and Long Beach during a major storm event. Simultaneously, the widened soft bottom of the channel slows the River’s normal flow, enabling the riparian habitat restoration of dozens of displaced and endangered plant and animal species. To sustain the health of such habitats, storm water from the watershed above is treated and stored for use onsite prior to release into the River.
Open Space
Public open space in Los Angeles is scarce. The sheer size of the city coupled with its singularly planned infrastructure has resulted in many communities being cut off-from accessible parkland and recreational areas. According to a 2007 survey completed by the Trust for Public Land, parks made up a mere 7.9% of the total area of the City as compared to 19.6% for New York City, 18.0% for San Francisco and 16.3% for Boston. Studies such as the 2007 Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Preventing Childhood Obesity: the need to create healthy places. A Cities and Communities Health Report also found relationships between economically poor and park poor communities.
Improving upon this incongruous open space configuration, the PBy proposal more than doubles accessible public parkland in Downtown and East Los Angeles as well as greens the River itself. A series of parklet “Green-Stitches” interconnect civic landmarks, the River and existing parks into a more comprehensive system. Several urban communities will now live within close proximity to open space, allowing them to reconnect with nature, wildlife, and our larger ecosystem while also joining together to rally around athletic leagues and live performances. Balance between active and passive program areas enables a more physically fit local population while providing sanctuaries for relaxed gatherings. Air quality in the park and its surrounds improves simply by replacing the minimally-regulated diesel trains with verdure and topography that also mitigate highway emissions. The aggregate benefit of such impacts provides for a healthier community and sound ecosystem.
Connectivity
Surrounded by an array of infrastructure and industry, the Piggyback Yard is heavily connected to manufacturing hubs afar but scarcely associated with its immediate neighbors. The city fabric breaks apart here and across the River near Union Station/MTA Plaza, which is also the proposed home to the future Los Angeles High-Speed Rail Station. Non-pedestrian friendly modes of transportation currently dominate, isolating River and surrounds from the greater City.
Recognizing the importance of the railway system to the region’s economic vitality, the PBy proposal maintains the passenger and freight rail lines along the River and at the Yard’s perimeter while still allowing for public River and park access from the adjacent neighborhoods of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and Downtown. Access is accomplished through vertical rail separations and sub-grade realignments, repurposing areas that currently act as barriers.
New green streets woven with the existing surface streets mend the city fabric, decrease vehicular trip generation, provide storm water treatment and create a healthier commuter. Pedestrian connections across the River create firsthand River experiences, while providing visitors to the burgeoning Transit District with a proper, river-based welcome to the world class City of Los Angeles. Enriching street life and extending the Metro Gold Line along Mission Road vigorously links Downtown with East Los Angeles, including the County/USC Medical campus and beyond, in order to rejuvenate a pass-through community. New bike and green ways along the River and (in some cases) railways connect the dots of an erratic pattern, forming a more comprehensive bike route system and realizing key view corridors. The combination of efforts looks to foster public access and promote mobility by way of walking and biking.
Community
California is expected to double its population by 2050. Over 9 million people currently live in Los Angeles County and community needs such as housing, jobs, and cultural areas are presently not fulfilled. Utilizing land more efficiently and allowing for higher density within primary urban areas of Los Angeles will be crucial to successfully meeting the demands today and challenges in the future. Property is at a premium as we try to squeeze ever more onto it, meaning multiple uses must be combined creatively, always with quality of life and land in mind.
The PBy proposal revitalizes the River by making a place out of it. This sense of place helps people discover common ground in accessible amenities available to currently disparate enclaves. Street face and environmental improvements bolster neighborhood pride, identity, camaraderie and stewardship of land and water. Inserting strategically interrelated uses into a formerly single-use industrial zone assembles millions of square-feet of truly mixed program (Cleantech industrial, commercial, hospitality, residential, public space) in forward-thinking ways in order to create a diversity of permanent jobs for thousands of local residents. A live-work environment sustains onsite activity day and night, enhancing the safety and vibrancy of the public realm, while the inclusion of prestigious cultural and educational facilities such as a Climate Change Center or a Satellite College Campus raises the reputational bar for this almost forgotten part of our city. In the end, the anticipated benefits must be measured in human terms: in the betterment of our environment, our lives, our health, our happiness.