Our vision for the Piggyback Yards is founded on four major principles; restore the Los Angeles River at the heart of the city while providing access to people and promoting sound water management; create significant public open space with a wealth of activities; connect to adjacent neighborhoods and bridge between east and west while maintaining all major existing railroads; build a diverse, vibrant community where people live, work, learn and play.
Water
We propose to dramatically transform the Los Angeles River through Downtown by reshaping its channel, replacing its concrete bed with a soft bottom, and slowing down its flow to allow vegetation to grow within its banks and attract fish, birds and other wildlife, forming a thriving ecosystem in the midst of a downtown core severely lacking in natural features. While transforming the River, we also plan to create the opportunity for natural water infiltration and cleansing, and to upgrade the flood control system provided by the existing channel by making a large portion of the site available for water detention during flood conditions to help protect the communities downstream. Most importantly, our concept enables people to have direct, safe access to over a mile of the riparian corridor and actively engage the unique environment of the Los Angeles River.
Open Space
We propose to create a 130-acre public park, the largest of its kind in Los Angeles, programmed with soccer fields, a multi-functional lawn and other sports amenities, miles of paths for walking, running and biking, ecological trails, a botanical garden, an edible garden and orchard, a sculpture garden, children’s playgrounds, interactive fountains and other water features, picnic areas and large, earth-formed gathering spaces such as a small stadium or amphitheater. We plan to create a place-making topography suitable for these activities and flood water detention by cutting through the existing grade, which will require soils remediation, and filling in bermed areas at the perimeter. We propose to establish a sustainable landscape by planting native species and daylighting existing underground streams to collect and retain storm water on site for irrigation.
Connectivity
We propose to connect the Piggyback Yard to the neighborhoods of Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights to the east and south by developing Mission Road to become a major boulevard linking East Los Angeles and Downtown, equipped with a new branch of the Metro Rail network, and by extending the natural landscape under the 5 freeway to create inviting entry points to the park. Our plan connects to the Brewery Arts Colony and the San Antonio Winery to the north by crossing over and under the existing railroad. It imagines a new link across the river in the form of a pedestrian bridge aimed at the Cornfields Park to the northwest. It celebrates the existing Cesar Chavez crossing by placing a major cultural facility at this nexus, and emphasizing a strong connection to Union Station and its future high speed rail component to the west. Finally, it anticipates that the naturalized river bed and its revitalized, accessible banks will allow crossing on foot during a large portion of the year.
Though our concept is based on the eventual relocation of the existing rail yard infrastructure, it includes a proposed new maintenance and storage facility under the elevated grade, connected to the existing railroad running along the northern edge of the site, and serving the Metro Rail or High Speed Rail systems or both.
Community
We propose to build an ambitious mixed-use neighborhood along Mission Road, combining a wide range of residential units for various income levels, retail spaces at grade to animate the street and serve a regional population coming to the park, office space above available to various institutions for educational and business activities, and deep, high-bay industrial spaces on the south side of the boulevard, perfectly suited to the City’s “Cleantech” initiative. We propose to elaborate an intricate vertical organization of this diverse program in order to achieve an unprecedented integration of various aspects of a vibrant Los Angeles neighborhood and offer a new, better adapted way of managing the growth of this city while concentrating activities close to public transportation. This vertical arrangement goes beyond the programmatic and also introduces the integration of landscape, buildings and sustainable systems through green roofs and photovoltaic panel arrays.
On the north side of the site, we propose to build an Arts Campus adjacent to the existing Brewery Arts Colony, with live/work artist studios, exhibition spaces and sculpture courtyards. This complex is nestled in the land forms and destined to be an intersection of culture, nature and the city. On the river bank, residential towers offer a new way to live in Los Angeles, overlooking the restored riparian habitat with the downtown skyline as a backdrop.
As part of this conceptual master planning of the Piggyback Yard and the south side of Mission Road, we also studied the potential transformation of the west side of the river, dubbed the Transportation District. The impetus for increasing the area of study was, provided by the imminent addition of a major high speed rail component to Union Station, which is expected to increase commuter and visitor traffic to 10 million people a year. We believe that a segment of the existing passenger rail tracks running along the west bank can be relocated underground, allowing immediate access to a stepped embankment programmed with retail, hospitality and public functions overlooking the River and the Piggyback Yard park across the water, creating a powerful synergy between the two areas. Our vision for the Transportation District also includes the relocation of large, existing industrial facilities to allow the re-stitching of the street grid, the growth of a denser urban scale, as well as the creation of wide, green, pedestrian connections between Union Station and the River.
