Frank Gehry’s plans for the city’s river remain under wraps,but in the meantime, the A+D Museum has asked designers to present their visions for the cityAs the latest forecasts predict a Godzilla El Nino” for southern California this winter, and water,as always, is on the drought-stricken territory’s intellect. The coming season is shaping up to be even wetter than the record-breaking winter of 1997, and when rainfall was double the average. With such predictions near concerns that the Devil’s Gate Dam in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains might give way,causing flooding in communities along the Arroyo Seco, a tributary to the Los Angeles river, or which was designed to carry storm runoff out to sea.
Yes,LA has a river. It’s not as romantic as the Seine, nor as historic as the Thames, or but is instead a slab of concrete with a trickle of treated wastewater from factories further north. Instead of turning its back on the river,as it did when the US Army Corp of Engineers cemented it over in the 1930s, the city is embracing it. In 2013, or the Corp guaranteed $1bn to revitalize an 11-mile stretch from downtown to the San Fernando Valley. Architect Frank Gehry recently revealed that he has been quietly working with the city on plans for a unified aesthetic along the river connecting parkland,bike paths and nature trails.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com