Civic Center Rebirth?

When Lauren Melendrez walks around the Civic Center in downtown Los Angeles, the contrasts grip her.

Monumental architecture is set against grimy streets. Lovely green spaces are blocked by auto ramps. Symbols of American democracy clash with the bleak reality of homeless encampments.

“I would like to see this Civic Center be something that reflects the civic pride of Los Angeles,” said Melendrez, a landscape architect with an office in nearby Highland Park. “Now a lot of people are ashamed of it. There are a lot of things down there I love, but in general it’s really in disrepair.”

Her opinion will be among those shaping a new effort to revitalize the Civic Center, one of the nation’s largest concentration of government buildings. Melendrez heads a group of architects, planners and marketers recently awarded a six-month, $175,000 contract to suggest how to make the neighborhood more vibrant, appealing and efficient.

The campaign has a special urgency. Seismic dangers have forced thousands of government workers out of Los Angeles City Hall and some nearby buildings into other parts of downtown or the region. Civic Center backers are afraid such temporary moves could become permanent, and that other public agencies soon might look for needed office space in suburban settings or in Bunker Hill skyscrapers being vacated by bank mergers.

Meanwhile, even though the Los Angeles Children’s Museum has sought a location away from its current Civic Center home, ambitious proposals for other cultural landmarks are in various stages of planning or construction. Such Civic Center investment, including a new St. Vibiana’s Cathedral and Disney Concert Hall, could be misplaced if the government core decays.

“This provides an excellent opportunity to take a fresh look at the Los Angeles Civic Center,” declared a recent city memo about the new effort. “At this time of change and improvement, a common vision is needed to ensure that government operates at the lowest reasonable cost and that the Civic Center remains the region’s premier center for governmental activities.”

Skeptics might roll their eyes and sigh, “Here we go again.” The Civic Center, they contend, is irrelevant to many Angelenos except for occasional jury duty or Christmas concerts at the Music Center. And computer technology, critics add, makes government clusters obsolete.

But backers insist that this campaign will be different. It will try to show how different levels of government can save money by remaining in the Civic Center and sharing facilities. The savings could help beautify the area and add better shops, parks and eateries to deter a further exodus.

“We want to try and do tangible things and go beyond having an intellectual discourse, and produce some change people can feel and experience,” said Jan Perry, chief of staff for Los Angeles Councilwoman Rita Walters.

Along with county Supervisor Gloria Molina, Walters co-chairs the 10-member Civic Center Authority, a planning agency that was moribund since 1969 until its rebirth last year. The Los Angeles Central City Assn., a private organization of downtown interests, persuaded city and county officials to revive the authority and to commission the upcoming “Civic Center Shared Facilities and Enhancement Plan.”

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One goal is to have governments share facilities. After all, the area has 28 government cafeterias and snack shops and 13 auto fleet and repair garages, according to a recent survey by the A.C. Martin & Associates architecture firm and the Central City Assn. Experts contend that trimming duplications could reduce building costs 25% in projected repairs or possible replacements of City Hall, the county Hall of Justice and two state office buildings, among other projects.

Last week, a consultant’s report urged that Parker Center, the Los Angeles Police Department’s dilapidated headquarters, be demolished and that its employees be moved to leased space while another Civic Center area building is purchased or built.

Coordinating such construction could boost the neighborhood’s look, backers say. “Urban districts are often perceived, or even defined, by the quality and consistency of their street environments. As the region’s center of government, the Los Angeles Civic Center lacks these defining qualities,” the Martin document said.

Many veteran government workers consider that a wry understatement.

“I wish there were more and better places to eat and shop, because I’m very jealous of the people who work near the Wells Fargo tower and Seventh Street. They can accomplish more during their lunch hours,” said Richard Bobb, a deputy city attorney.

Other workers complain that the lunchtime strolls become scary detours around homeless panhandlers. The Union Rescue Mission’s move last year from its longtime home at 2nd and Main streets decreased the number of homeless people in the Civic Center, some officials say.

Although the Melendrez team won’t seek to solve homelessness, it will suggest ways to attract more government employees to walk in the area. An additional goal is to better link projects in various stages of construction and planning.

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Among the projects are the Metro Rail subway, Angels Flight funicular, Disney Concert Hall, St. Vibiana’s, development at Union Station, the Angels Walk proposal for walkways in downtown, and state restoration of the vacant Broadway department store building.

(Officials of the Los Angeles Times, a large private property owner in the area, also have been consulted. The Times considered moving but decided in October 1994 to remain in its signature Civic Center buildings.)

At their most boosterish, the new authority’s members portray the area as a giant chessboard, with government buildings jumping to new sites in happy succession. But given the county’s fiscal crisis and the agony over how to repair City Hall, much debate is expected on whether funds are available for any new government buildings.

Moreover, difficult social questions are raised, echoing back to the Acropolis and Forum of ancient Greece and Rome.

“What is the role of a civic center in light of our sprawling metropolis and modern technology? How do you express government in a space?” asked Daniel Rosenfeld, manager of the city’s Asset Management Division and a key member of the authority.

Similar issues were analyzed three years ago by the Community Redevelopment Agency’s overall Downtown Strategic Plan, but the current study is to focus more on the government centers from Union Station to 4th Street. Rosenfeld and others caution that no one will recommend, nor can anyone afford, massive ‘60s style redevelopment. “It will be one block at a time, one palm tree at a time,” he said.

Besides, the vacancy rate in downtown private office space is about 23% and may worsen as a result of bank mergers. So no one is expecting a new private sector development soon.

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And there will be another difference from ‘60s plans. For 30 years, the Civic Center’s soul was supposed to be open spaces leading from the Department of Water and Power, through the Music Center, the county courthouse and administration complex, down to City Hall. The idea was only partly realized. Recently, the courthouse portion came to life with the addition of a cafe, but the City Hall frontage remains a confusing parking lot and a squalid campground for the homeless.

The upcoming study will try to improve that east-west corridor and eliminate barriers posed by garage driveways. The consultants will emphasize real sidewalks, focusing on a north-south axis between St. Vibiana’s and Union Station on Main, Spring and Los Angeles streets, with an expansive bridge over the Hollywood Freeway. The idea returns to a 1920s concept that the freeway destroyed.

In addition to Melendrez, the consultant team members are committed to urban amenities: architect William H. Fain Jr. of Johnson Fain and Pereira Associates, streetscape designer Douglas R. Suisman of Public Works Design, architect R. Steven Lewis of RAW Architecture and realty analyst Charles Loveman of Landmark Partners.

Certainly, they will visit the shopping center beneath City Hall East. That underground city-owned mall now suffers structural problems, vacancies and confusing entries.

“Given a choice, few would window-shop or enjoy a leisurely long lunch here,” said a separate recent report by Gensler and Associates for the city’s Department of General Services. The consultants suggested that a private-public partnership move the stores up onto the streets, possibly on a freeway bridge and convert the underground space into city offices.

Another crucial spot is the 1st Street lot containing rubble of a demolished state office building between Broadway and Spring Street. Since a deal for an office tower died last year, the land has become a squalid campground. The operator of the adjacent parking lot has proposed paying $400,000 for cleanup, the possible addition of a cafe and a landscaped walkway through the parking lot. In exchange, Five Star Parking wants more parking room and a five-year contract extension.

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“The goal is what everyone wants to achieve: Convert it to a safe and aesthetic place instead of a mini Bosnia, which is what it is,” said Joe Lumer, Five Star Parking general manager. “It’s the heart of our city. It’s a shame to see one of the nicest pieces of property in the middle of the city look like that.”

County officials, who control the land, are studying the idea but stress that any such proposal and contract must be competitively bid first. “We want to get something done,” said Les Detweiler, a county analyst.

Such a change is crucial to landscape architect Melendrez’s vision of the future Civic Center. “We want this to be a wonderful place, with a lot of activity,” she said. “Just think about the morale boost.”