Exciting access to a rich natural environment

Green space, park access, and trees

San Fernando Valley

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

The UN estimates that by 2100, the world's population will grow by 3 billion to over 11 billion people. How do we accommodate this growth while addressing the issues associated with climate change?
First, we must acknowledge that low density, auto-dependent urban sprawl, with its huge carbon footprint, social segregation and consequent civic disengagement, is not the answer.
We believe that reimagining our cities with denser, walkable neighborhoods, vital green and civic spaces where citizens feel safe accessing the natural environment and enjoy community with others, is the way forward. Our proposal for the Sepulveda Basin will play a key role in this future for the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles County.

With the LA River running through it, ample acorn-rich oak trees and rabbits, deer and trout, the Sepulveda Basin was a paradise for its pre-colonial inhabitants. Following the LA Flood of 1938, the river downstream was channelized and the Sepulveda Dam was built. 2,000 acres of the land upstream to the north and west was left undeveloped and leased as a flood control/recreation area to the City of Los Angeles.
The basin is more than twice the size of New York's Central Park and most of this area remains home to native wildlife, & an important stop for avian migration. Although recreational uses are popular on weekends, there is enormous untapped potential here that can also serve as a template for a sustainable future.
Our plan is to provide access, just a few steps from an Orange Line Busway transit stop, to the rich natural resources of the Sepulveda Basin. This gateway will include:
a civic plaza to support performances, public gatherings, a weekend farmers market & a café/kiosk selling produce grown on site;
a 40,000 SF crescent shaped building nestled into the existing topography housing community, resilience & interpretive centers; under a green roof providing a protected nesting site for native birds.
A promenade along the top of the berm at the high point of the basin will provide the public with mountain views to the north and south and lead to trails around a restored tree-lined LA River tributary and a new bridge overlooking Lake Balboa.
A paradise once again!

Our proposal will reveal the beauty of, and provide access to, a large but little-known natural resource in the heart of the San Fernando Valley. It will showcase a pioneering integration of educational and civic spaces, environmental building practices, and the exquisiteness of nature guided by the deep knowledge and ethos of Native American culture. This knowledge will be a key element of the natural and cultural history interpretive center, and a model village illustrating pre-colonial life in the Basin, designed by our team of Native American leaders.
Our work, with its emphasis on indigenous ways of life and nature's role in the evolution of culture & science, will propose an integrated model of modern civic, cultural and environmental sustainability.
We are also in early discussions with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County to operate the interpretive center and with County District 3 City Council District 6 and to provide field offices to anchor the new civic plaza.