08_03_PAR: Parkman Triangle Park

2009 brings us a lot of change, both politically and economically as well. The architecture scene here in Los Angeles has been especially bleak with many firms laying off staff and some even being brought to the edge of bankruptcy. Architects will have a lot to think about over the next few years and a reassessment of the profession is certainly in order.

Despite all of the gloom and doom there are some events that still warrant optimism.

We at Urban Operations are proud to announce that the City of Los Angeles has accepted our proposal for a small "pocket park" to be built at the intersection of Parkman and Silver Lake Blvd. We have been working on this project with the local community for the past six months and were not expecting the project to be approved due to city budget cuts. When we learned from the City of Los Angeles on Friday that our project was one of forty to be funded (not that many for a city of 3.5 million), we were elated.

Now for the hard part- Getting the park built. So far we've avoided the normal pitfalls that normally grip this kind of project and hope that the journey continues to be a smooth one.

It is the nature for public projects such as this one to get bogged down by the kind of democratic populism that generally leans towards mediocrity rather than a lasting and useful public space. This project has been anything but that up to this point. The Parkman Triangle committee is a small one, and the voices in the group have been united by a shared desire to get the park built. The design process was simple. I went to a meeting with the committee, listened to what people wanted, and then produced a scheme in the office that not only sought to contemporize the notion of what a park could be, but attempted to create something that was not about style, but instead a spatial reading of the neighborhood and the city as a whole.

It is our hope that the park, once built, will give the community a place to rest, a place to meet new neighbors, a place to fall in love, a place to share ideas, and a place that instills in the community a sense of pride and trust in the City of Los Angeles.

Stay tuned for updates as we begin the permitting phase of the project and enter the realm of civic architecture. We hope that this blog will continue it's mission to educate people about the processes taking a project from concept to execution. For this project in particular it's going to be quite a journey.

2636 Corralitas Wrap Up

I felt that I’d left people hanging with the project so I thought I’d provide a wrap-up with some accompanying images which I’ll be posting over the next few days on our company site. You can visit this project for a closer look at 2636 Corralitas Drive, Los Angeles CA 90026. It is currently being leased and we request that you not disturb the occupants. The project is still for sale, though it is currently “off the market”. We will entertain any reasonable offer at or within the margin of the original sale price.

Urban Operations is currently in the pre-development phase of a duplex for a client in Silver Lake and in the site selection process of R-2 lots in the Silver Lake/Echo Park area. We are interested in design collaborations with larger firms and are currently taking on commissions from private clients. As you can see from our site on Corralitas Drive we are willing to look at just about any site proposal. For more information you can contact our office by emailing us at:

info (at sign) urban-ops (dot) net

Happy 2009!