LAX Gateway Hits Turbulence on Its Way to a Quick Landing

Is the massive gateway to Los Angeles International Airport, now under construction along Century and Sepulveda boulevards, a $28-million boondoggle? A Las Vegas-style folly? Or a much-needed upgrade highlighted by a spectacularly beautiful portal?

Opinions of the project differ sharply, as they probably will even after the complex of giant pylons and letters spelling out “LAX” is completed. Designed by Los Angeles architect Ted Tanaka, the ambitious gateway consists of three sets of metal letters on Sepulveda--near Lincoln and Century boulevards and Imperial Highway--and 30 glass-sheathed pylons that lead to the airport and encircle the overpasses and intersection of Century and Sepulveda.

But everyone involved with the new airport gateway seems to agree on one thing: This is a hurry-up job, scheduled for completion before the Democratic National Convention in August. What’s more, some project advisors say, putting the gateway on the fast track has compromised--if not subverted--the design review system required by the City Charter.

The gateway, which is part of a $112-million airport face lift, was conceived two years ago. But final plans weren’t presented to the Cultural Affairs Commission--the city’s design review board--until early March. By that time, work was already set to begin amid a frantic effort to beautify the city before it goes under the convention spotlight. Excavation and preliminary construction proceeded even as Cultural Affairs commissioners and their advisors debated the merits of Tanaka’s design. The commission approved the project in a 4-2 vote on April 6, but even its most ardent supporters concede that the endorsement was granted under pressure.

“It was a fait accompli--unless we wanted to make those wheels absolutely stop, which wouldn’t have been good citizenship,” said commission President Lee Ramer, who voted for the project. “The plans did come to us, but after the project was under construction. That’s the part that’s very disturbing.”

Ramer praised Tanaka as “a very fine architect,” but she expressed regret that airport officers either didn’t take the Cultural Affairs Commission seriously or “just went off without fully thinking it through.”

“Early review is very important, and we have wonderful architects and city planners who serve pro bono on the Commission Design Advisory Panel,” she said. “Even though we are laypeople, we are acting with good advice as well as community concern. [The airport officials] didn’t take advantage of that, and that was a mistake.”

Architect Doug Suisman, who chairs the 11-member advisory panel, was distinctly troubled by the end-run of the process, writing in a report: “The [Democratic National] Convention is a temporary event . . . but the pylons are not temporary. They can be expected to stand for 30 to 40 years or more. They represent a nearly $10-million investment in a major public monument, erected by a public agency on public land at public expense. As such they deserve thorough public review and approval.”

Airport architect Kim Day, who was hired five months ago to oversee LAX’s massive upgrade and enhancement project, said everyone involved with the project is hustling to meet the fast-approaching deadline. But she attributed much of the problem with Cultural Affairs to “a design-build mode” used for airport improvements.

“There were no drawings of the project until just a couple of months ago,” she said. “This is a process that many people in the industry are using now because it is more efficient. Instead of the designer drawing something and then the contractor saying, ‘I’ve got a better way of doing that’ after he comes on board, the designer states his intent and the contractor comes up with a way to make it happen.”

The system doesn’t necessarily preclude input from Cultural Affairs, but it does require some adjustment, she said. “The next time we do design-build, we will probably have the designer take the concept further so that there will be something to show the commissioners early. Everybody felt this was rushed, but we’ve learned a lot. In the future we will work with Cultural Affairs in a different way than we have on this particular project.”

Goals Were to Identify, Beautify Airport Entry

A plan to enhance and streamline the entrance to the airport began in 1998 with the formation of Gateway to L.A., a business improvement district spearheaded by property owners who wanted to increase occupancy rates in hotels and office buildings on Century Boulevard. Art consultant Merry Norris, executive director of the group, has served as its representative in meetings with the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners and its team of designers, headed by Tanaka.

“The goal was to make it more convenient for people to find their way [into] the airport, to beautify it and to provide a portal and symbolic gateway structure,” Tanaka said. He and his team were charged with finding a way to achieve that goal through landscaping, signage, lighting and artwork.

When they submitted their ideas, the airport commissioners chose a design that includes three sets of “LAX” letters, ranging from 10 feet to 32 feet in height and located on Sepulveda Boulevard, near Lincoln and Century boulevards and Imperial Highway, and 30 illuminated glass and steel pylons, which will in one scheme be programmed with multicolored lights. Fifteen pylons, 6 feet in diameter, will rise in height from 25 feet to 60 feet as they approach the airport on the median of Century. The other 15 columns, measuring 12 feet in diameter, will form a 500-foot-diameter circle just outside the airport entrance.

Advisory Panel Architect Voices Some Objections

The conceptual phase of Tanaka’s plan came to the attention of the Cultural Affairs Commission in the fall of 1998, when a few commissioners--along with representatives of several city departments and the mayor’s office--were invited to a series of meetings with the airport’s advisory committee. But then the plan languished--for reasons that no one seems able to explain. Sixteen months after the last meeting concerning the gateway, a plan was presented to the Cultural Affairs Commission.

Taking his turn to review plans, Suisman became concerned over several components. On April 4, after studying the project and talking with his colleagues and Tanaka, he sent a memorandum to the Cultural Affairs commissioners summing up his recommendations.

While lauding efforts to beautify the airport, he said the presence of a few Cultural Affairs representatives at early meetings could not be construed as tacit approval of the project. Suisman recommended that the commissioners approve the landscaping and pedestrian linkages, lighting and the LAX signs--with a number of adjustments--but he disapproved of the illuminated pylons.

In a lengthy list of concerns, Suisman questioned spending nearly $10 million of public money, on the pylons alone, to merely mark a location, rather than building something that would perform a useful service. He also objected to the project as grandiose, and aimed mainly at people traveling by car on Century Boulevard while ignoring pedestrians and public transit users.

“Is highlighting a freeway-style overpass the most appropriate symbolic gesture for our city and region?” he asked in his memo. “Might the proposed light show be dangerously distracting to drivers?”

Day praised Suisman’s efforts and said some of his suggestions will be incorporated to make the airport more pedestrian-friendly. But she expressed confidence that the gateway will be both a dramatic and a useful addition to the city’s landscape.