海角视频

Verdugo Wash Visioning Plan

Glendale, CA

The Verdugo Wash is a nine-mile tributary joining with the Los Angeles River, located in the City of Glendale, California. In the 1930s, the County of Los Angeles transformed the tributary from its natural form into its present man-made utilitarian form as a flood control channel encased in concrete and open to the sky.

The Verdugo Wash Visioning project offers a unique placemaking opportunity that will substantially influence the character of this diverse community.

9.5 miles of wash has been transformed into a linear park for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure

We have continued our work on stranded assets 鈥� large public infrastructure systems that have become defunct receiving a new life.

We focused on four areas: resiliency and flood planning, increasing cycling and walking access, habitat restoration and ways to make the Verdugo Wash project greener and more equitable.

Challenge

Though the community is accustomed to its presence, the wash often presents itself as a structural and visual disconnect between differing parts of the city, the downtown, and even between neighborhoods and neighbors along its approximately 9.5 miles of length. 

海角视频鈥檚 , mobility, water, and ecology experts worked alongside !melk urban design to develop a high level vision, including but not limited to conceptual design, programming, and integration of the Verdugo Wash into the existing and anticipated land use framework as a linear park and spine of the City鈥檚 pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

Solution

The design and consulting team comprised and 海角视频 alone. 海角视频 was tasked with four key consulting areas: mobility, hydrology, biology and sustainability. These four areas include resiliency and flood planning, increasing cycling and walking access, habitat restoration and ways to make the Verdugo Wash project greener and more equitable.

With this project, 海角视频 continued its focus on stranded assets 鈥� large public infrastructure systems that have become underutilized, disinvested, or defunct due to shifts in the ways our urban systems function. These assets are prime opportunities for improved quality of life and delivery of services to the communities of our cities. From the High Line in New York City to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, 海角视频鈥檚 public realm infrastructure projects prioritize the values of the 21^st century city: sustainability, resilience, equity, and access to public space for all.

Value

鈥淲e鈥檙e excited about the potential of this project, which finally brings wider community benefits to the nearly century-old concrete flood control infrastructure that led to unintended negative consequences,鈥� says Chris Rhie, urban planner and associate principal with 海角视频. 鈥淥ur work will help bring back natural habitat, make the stream accessible and visible, and turn the river into a community asset that鈥檚 walkable, bikeable, shady and magnetic.鈥�