After reviewing initial proposals from 10 semi-finalist design teams, the partnership group Pershing Square Renew announced four finalists:
– The “Local Force”: SWA with Morphosis
– The “Landscape Starchitect”: James Corner Field Operations with Frederick Fisher & Partners
– The “Globetrotters”: Agence TER with SALT Landscape Architects
– The “Wild Card”: wHY with Civitas
“This jury was blown away by the amount of talent and insight that all ten competitors brought to the table,” said Janet Marie Smith, Senior Vice President for Planning and Development of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the chair of the Pershing Square Renew design competition’s jury.
“In the end, there was a strong consensus that these four competitors were going to take Pershing Square — the heart of Downtown LA — in exciting directions we hadn’t anticipated.”
Pershing Square, the public park that covers an entire city block adjacent to LA’s Historic Core, Jewelry District, Bunker Hill and Civic Center, as well as a major transit station, has seen multiple incarnations, the most recent an overhaul dating back to the early 1990’s.
In September of this year, Councilmember Huizar spurred the creation of Pershing Square Renew, a public-private partnership to overhaul and re-envision the five-acre park that emerged from the Councilmember’s broad vision for a revitalized Downtown LA.
