Central Park Comes to Hollywood
With much fanfare, a plan has been formally unveiled that would cover a portion of the
101 Freeway in LA with parkland. The 92-page report outlines a proposal for a one mile stretch of the freeway to be covered with a lid of green as it winds through the Hollywood area. Formally titled the "Hollywood Freeway Central Park," the project would cost $950 million, with construction set to begin in 2012. The design would provide 44 acres of green space in one of the city's most park deprived neighborhoods. It would also put a lid on the visual blight created by the below grade freeway. Of course motorists traversing through the one mile tunnel may have issues with the plan, but advocates say they've taken those concerns into consideration by raising the ceiling to 17 feet and providing bright lights, filtered air and closed-circuit TV surveillance. I guess it would be no different than traveling into Manhattan through the Midtown or Holland Tunnels.
Completed section of "Big Dig" park, HelveticaFanatic via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
A lot of the press coverage mentioned other tunnel/highway/greenbelt projects, including
Boston's infamous Big Dig. Completed in 2003, it was a gigantic undertaking removing an incredibly ugly, elevated highway superstructure that ripped downtown Boston into two parts. (If you're from San Francisco, you may remember when the Embarcadero had that hideous monstrosity of a highway running in front of the Ferry Building not to long ago). Once Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy got the federal government to cough-up the funding, the unsightly steel decking was demolished and the Interstate was put below ground. Then a greenbelt was created that united downtown Boston with it's historic waterfront and Old North End neighborhood. If you had ever visited the city prior to the Central Artery's demise, you had to walk under the rusting, elevated steel structure that supported a stream of traffic roaring overhead, on your way to the harbor or Paul Revere's house in the North End. Although the Hollywood Freeway is already below grade, the concept is very similar.
in the park created above NY Central track line, streetblogs.org; Park Avenue today, David Reeves via flickr /Artwork:
designslinger]
When the old Grand Central Station building needed replacing in the early 1900s, part of
the overall plan called for creating a park that would cover the New York Central's track bed which ran down the middle of Park Avenue. The enterprise transformed a multi-block residential community into one of the most sought after addresses in New York. When the park portion of Park Avenue was completed, New Yorkers could stroll up the Avenue on a meandering path and relax on benches along the way. A single lane was set aside for auto traffic which eventually grew to multiple lanes, and the park portion of the avenue has shrunk to the size you see today.
It's hard to imagine that the Hollywood Central Park will find funding in this day and age,
but with the incoming president's announcement on Saturday of a major public works program, LA may get it's freeway-topped park after all.
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