CONNECT
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2019 Grants Challenge

OP: A New Urban Resource

Idea by Ahdom_Sayre

OP will be the first of a series of public spaces designed specifically for wellness, productivity, and environmental education to be built throughout Los Angeles. It will function as a refuge for increased productivity and self-care, and serve as a beacon for the future of urban environmental design. Through the deployment of a scientifically-backed, human-tuned natural landscape optimized for work and life, OP will contribute to making LA the best place to LEARN, CREATE, PLAY, CONNECT & LIVE.

Donate

Please list the organizations collaborating on this proposal.

GreenWealth Energy

Briefly tell us a story that demonstrates how your organization turns inspiration into impact.

I, Ahdom Sayre (Founder and Creative Director of A_S), like many California inhabitants, love the California wilderness. I have been passionate about wilderness exploration since I can remember, and spend the majority of my time away from work in the outdoors, seeking remote and beautiful landscapes to be a part of through backpacking, alpine climbing, trail running, and canyoneering.

This is the great privilege of being a California and Los Angeles native, but though we have some of the most awe-inspiring nature in the world only a short drive away, the majority of us, including myself, spend nearly all of our time completely removed from it.

Only very recently has our species been able to scientifically prove just how important the best of these awe-inspiring experiences are to our well-being and to our capacity to do our best work, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Now it is also our privilege to bring the great gifts of our rich natural environment and mediterranean climate more closely into our daily lives, to benefit from a new lifestyle of improved health and wellness that only LA could foster, and to give back to place that has given us so much.

I hope OP will prove to be a daily incarnation of the inspiration that can be had in the great landscapes of the CA wilderness, allowing us to live our best lives and do our best work, and reminding us why we need to care for the great gifts that our planet has given us.

Which of the CONNECT metrics will your submission impact?​​

Access to free wifi

Government responsiveness to residents’ needs

Travel time to work

In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?​

Central LA

How will your project make LA the best place to CONNECT?

EXECUTION

OP will be designed and built using the most cutting-edge technologies and methodologies available for the highest benefit to human and environmental health. Los Angeles is a booming hub for clean-tech innovation and by leveraging the large community of inventors and experts in the area, OP will showcase the best LA and the world has to offer.

A_S has over 10 years of experience in the designing and manufacturing of high-end, custom architectural spaces, and will be utilizing this experience and in-house manufacturing capabilities to ensure the highest quality product is achieved. But we are not alone.

The Collaborator Team behind this project spans from local organizations and community development groups, to environmental technology businesses and pioneering carbon-negative manufacturing houses.

TIMELINE

If OP is funded through LA2050, the project will begin by defining a land-use agreement. This will be in collaboration with our community partners, Linear City and the ADLT Neighborhood Council, to find the best fit for the project and will prioritize the best experience for local pedestrian traffic as well centrality, to provide easy access for as many people as possible. (2-6 weeks)

Once the land-use agreement is determined, we will begin designing the park per the location, based on our High Performance Design strategy which OP is based on, and with intimate communication between our various technology and manufacturing consultants to ensure this is a project that best showcases the full capacity of each group functioning as one team. (8-12 weeks)

With the location, designs, and manufacturing approach determined, permitting, manufacturing, and construction will begin. This process will take us through to the end of the timeline, with an estimated duration of 5-7 months.

LA2050

OP is a project for everyone. As a pillar of LA2050’s goal for a better city for everyone and everything, it will provide an open, multi-use space to learn, create, play, connect and live for anyone who visits, all while fostering the highest performance and health for both us and our environment.

CONNECT

Although it was hard to choose just one, we chose to categorize this project under CONNECT because of the great potential that ‘space’ has to connect. OP will serve to connect us to each other, and back to our environment, by providing services like free Wifi, a variety of seating, meeting, and working places, incredible natural surroundings, and informational displays highlighting contemporary ideas behind how environments effect our health, happiness and performance. OP will also be a place for community events, connecting us for better civic engagement, and for sharing ideas. Or it can serve to simply connect us back to ourselves, with a beautiful atmosphere for easy access to a place for self-reflection or mental ‘time away’.

In what stage of innovation is this project?​

Pilot project (testing a new idea on a small scale to prove feasibility)

Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.​

Success for the project will be measured by both successfully completing the build, and by the impact it creates on the local community and the green community at large. To use the free wifi we will require a very brief survey only requiring a few seconds to answer, but this will help us learn more about the use, experience, benefits, and ways we can improve in the future. We hope this project will provide a great resource to the community and look forward to refining and expanding this resource through feedback, studies, and additional projects throughout the city, to give LA an urban resource like no other city.