Had a lovely outing at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, yesterday. The city is really working to make this hillside between the Music Center and City Hall into a civic center of gravity. The design is a little concrete-heavy, but since they are trying to emphasize native and habitat-friendly plant life, a great big lawn of grass would be costly, inappropriate, and regularly destroyed.
I think part of the problem with downtown is that the design philisophy has so often seemed to reflect as its highest priority a defensive crouch against homeless people and drug dealers. But citizens can’t reclaim the space until you make a space that they have some desire to gather in. This park is clean, bright, open, and welcoming; and is due to expand. All good signs.
I got some nice shots of kids frolicking in the fountain; but I won’t make those public – they’re not my kids, right?
Click here for full-page gallery
Grand Park - April 13
A perfect spring day in downtown LA. Kids were frolicking in the fountain, and the flowers were brilliant