Very interesting project concept covered yesterday in the LA Times: Hollywood Freeway Central Park. The concept of the project is essentially a one mile long park-covered overpass over the 101 freeway in hollywood. Here is a rendering of the project:
You know, i think it’s an innovative idea and at times I’ve been stuck in traffic and had day dreams of what it might be like if all the freeways were torn out and replaced with bike paths and greenspaces, but I’ll be honest, I would be so pissed if I got stuck in traffic under that overpass for more than 3 minutes. Much like a concept car is to the eventual design of a production model, I think this concept would be a great idea in a slightly scaled back from for two reasons: (1) Commuters will want to kill themselves being stuck in a tunnel for an hour durring rush hour… and (2) Although it would be nice to have more park space and sports fields around the city, do we really want kids playing sports and running above a major freeway? It seems like that would be a major health hazard.
My vote would be to go with a smaller “pocket park” model, and provide green space for walking, beautification, and maybe even gardening…. With the money you save from not having to build an enormous overpass, I’m sure you could easily afford to purchase space for sports facilities further from the freeway.
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