When you hear the delighted squeals of children splashing in the trickling streams of Vista Hermosa Natural Park, see families picnicking on a lawn, or inhale the aromatic scents of white sage and coyote bush while strolling trails that feel like they’re in the foothills, you soon realize: In the great battle of L.A. sprawl [...]

By Christopher Hawthorne Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic March 2, 2013 Los Angeles, more than most cities, has defined itself by continual bursts of expansion and an unflagging optimism about its place in the world. But as the city has grown to a population nearing 4 million, we’ve neglected some major holes in the civic [...]

      The Problem Development of 200 condominiums and nine four-story buildings is proposed for the last remaining unprotected open space along the L.A. River in the San Fernando Valley, which would remove the only river-front site in the Valley with capacity to provide critical regional public access to the L.A. River. CCS’ Solution [...]

“There is emotion here. There is a neighborhood here… It is very special to have this.” -Councilman Tom La Bonge     The Silver Lake Reservoir + Meadow Park- PlaceMaking in Los Angeles, One Space at a Time from michelle frier on Vimeo. The Silver Lake Reservoir + Meadow Park- PlaceMaking in Los Angeles, One [...]

By Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times August 28, 2012 Say what you want about the new Grand Park downtown; the most astounding public space in the city is Vista Hermosa Natural Park, a paradoxical patch of meadows and native plantings in Temple-Beaudry. Ricardo Brizuela tasted his first s’more this summer at a campfire at Vista [...]

We had the pleasure of teaming with PSOMAS, the Bureau of Engineering, and the Departments of Parks & Recreation and Sanitation in creating the vision of Councilwoman Jan Perry: The South L.A. Wetlands Park. Funded by Prop. O, this historic rail yard was transformed into a sprawling urban wetland comprising a nine-acre storm water improvement, [...]