Judges for Pershing Square Design Chosen : Deadline Set for First-Round Entries in Competition for Downtown Park Is May 31

Several well-known architects, landscape architects, the sculptor who designed the 1984 Olympics gateway figures, and urban planners, as well as community representatives constitute the 12-member jury chosen to judge the entries for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.

Deadline for the first-stage entries in the two-stage competition is May 31. Details are available from Professional Advisor, Pershing Square Design Competition, 523 West 6th St., Suite 200, Los Angeles 90014.

The competition is supported by a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and is being sponsored by Pershing Square Management Assn. and the city of Los Angeles. Five-acre Pershing Square, the city’s oldest park, has been the subject of extensive community discussion.

Professional members of the jury are architect Charles Moore, a partner of Moore, Ruble & Yudell; landscape architect Garrett Eckbo of Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams; sculptor Robert Graham, who created the twin Olympic statues; urban designer Angela Danadjieva, founder of Danadjieva, Konig & Associates; Hideo Sasaki, landscape architect and urban designer and co-founder of Sasaki/Walker Associates, and Craig Hodgetts, professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.

Community representatives include Wayne Ratkovich, developer and chairman of the Pershing Square Management Assn.; David C. Martin, vice chairman of the Pershing Square Management Assn.; Dolly Chapman and Frank Kuwahara, commissioners of the Community Redevelopment Agency; Dennis Luna, commissioner of the city Department of Recreation and Parks, and Alan Sieroty, member of the city Cultural Affairs Commission.

“Since the design competition was announced in January, we have received more than 400 requests for information from throughout the United States and countries such as Algeria, Sweden, Great Britain and Japan,” according to Janet Marie Smith, president of Pershing Square Management Assn. “We are particularly optimistic about the enthusiastic response from the local design community.”