What do we love about Los Angeles the most? The beaches? The mountains? The iconic streets that are as famous as the highlights situated along them? Or, that it is home to most multicultural neighborhoods in the country? Our pick would be all the above; but, in our opinion, the most exciting addition to the mix is seeing our labor of love throughout the City. While we are not exactly fans of LA traffic, we admit feeling a hint of excitement as we drive around the City and spot highlights (aka buildings and streetscape) as we help shape the City in these inspiring times of growth and development.
In this segment, we will focus on one such street and community: Crenshaw Boulevard. It is, perhaps, not as glamorous as its cousins Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard but known to many Angelenos as the cultural and commercial hub of the African American community in Los Angeles. More specifically our focus is on the birth and development of Destination Crenshaw, a 1.3-mile-long outdoor art and cultural corridor. Destination Crenshaw is the first project of its kind in Los Angeles using an iconic street as an anchor for public art and streetscape design. It was an idea that was born in response to LA Metro building LAX Crenshaw rail line at grade instead of underground, and championed by councilman Marquees Harris-Dawson, Council District 8. LA Metro’s decision to build at grade could have negatively impacted the local businesses along the corridor but the community showed resiliency in creating an opportunity from a threat.
The outdoor museum project will have community gathering spaces for recreation and relaxation including an amphitheater, 2.6-miles of paved sidewalks with custom pavers, decorative lighting, pocket parks, parklets, and hundreds of new trees. The pocket parks and parklets are adaptive re-use of existing parking lots with artwork installations. Designed by Perkins + Will and Studio-MLA, the project purposes to restore and highlight the unique contributions of African Americans to life in Los Angeles.
The project includes three major iconic structures. the first one is a 120-ft tall structure that reads Crenshaw on all its sides, a beacon that will be appreciated from several places around the City. Destination Crenshaw also incorporates an existing landmark ‘Wall of Crenshaw’, an 800-foot-long mural featuring artwork by well-known African Americans from the community. The mural on the wall covers several generations and intended to be preserved for future generations. Lastly, the crown jewel of the project is a piece called “Sankofa Park,” an elevated concrete observation deck which offers views of the corridor and the City, including Downtown Los Angeles.
Currently in design and permitting phase, the creation of Destination Crenshaw project will be an important feature along LA Metro’s LAX-Crenshaw rail system as it connects LAX to Exposition Line (thereby connecting to Downtown Los Angeles in the east, and Santa Monica in the west). The project is aimed to benefit not just the local community but also offer a peek into the past, present and future of this prominent African American community to the passengers of the rail line as they traverse through the corridor.
LA Civil and LA Structural are providing civil engineering and structural engineering services for the project. Since our involvement on the project in early 2018, Destination Crenshaw, has presented and continues to present opportunities for creating relationships with key bureaus of the City of Los Angeles Public Works Department, LA Metro, Council District 8 and the LA Mayor’s Department of Transportation. As the technical engineering lead, KPFF is working closely with the team by addressing important design and permitting issues with active participation in project development meetings including strategies for a seamless transition between Destination Crenshaw and LAX-Crenshaw projects as they overlap re-construction of the street infrastructure.
Construction on Destination Crenshaw is expected to begin in early 2020 with a goal to open it to the public along the opening of the LAX-Crenshaw line.
