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Lake Park at L.A.'s Sofi Stadium
SoFi Stadium Mutually Benefits Public Well-Being and Social Values
A 298-acre site that was the home of the Hollywood Park Racetrack in the Southern California city of Inglewood is now being developed for mixed use with a world-class football stadium and more than 25 acres of public parks and open space. The direction of the project relied on input from community members, the landowners, Inglewood's Economic & Community Development Department and the design team. This included landscape architectural firm Studio-MLA, which was involved in the project before the stadium was even part of it. Also in the plans are residential accommodations, and more green spaces and retail and commercial amenities. For this on-going project, Studio-MLA has so far completed the grounds around SoFi Stadium, the NFL Network's office building, the Hollywood Casino a segment of the retail area, streets, parking lot, and Lake Park, which features a lake with upper and lower portions separated by cascading waterfalls. The benches here are Steelhead stone.
Comprising six acres, the man-made lake is reminiscent of a water feature that was well-loved, according to community input, of the old racetrack. This lake was designed as a collection source for stormwater runoff. Drains around the site daylight into the lake. Everywhere they daylight there is a wetland to filter pollutants. This lakeside wetland area contains a growth of Variegated Striped reed (Baumea rubiginosa 'variegata'). The water is then recycled for site irrigation. According to the landscape architects this is the first such lake to successfully mix stormwater with reclaimed water, and the first-ever filtration system cleaning water before reuse. PHOTO COURTESY OF NIC LEHOUX
Connecting the surrounding neighborhoods to the mixed-use development is the open space framework of the project's plans. All future development will share borders with either Lake Park or other green spaces, including planned parks. PHOTO COURTESY OF STUDIO-MLA
Since an estimated ninety percent of the embodied carbon of concrete is due to the production of cement, much of the concrete in this project replaced cement with a special aggregate, known as Orca, from British Columbia as part of the environmentally friendly goals of the project. Even figuring in the carbon released from transporting the aggregate, the design team calculated a significant overall savings. Here, the dark gray areas of the surface contain the special aggregate, the light gray areas do not. Shaw and Sons, Trademark Concrete and J&M Concrete were the concrete installers. Throughout the site, ribbon steel fencing was specified as an elegant feature and serves as additional crowd control. These partial fences in the planters, when combined with temporary fencing during events, creates a secure boundary at the stadium's entrance. PHOTO COURTESY OF TRADEMARK CONRETE
Plantings emphasized the biodiversity found in the Mediterranean biome shared by Southern California, Chile, South Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean region- all of which are areas between the 30th and 45th latitude with a west-facing ocean. These plants are suited to hot, dry summers and frost-free winters but are also very diverse and low maintenance. This planter contains Old Man Spirit cacti, Aloe and Acacias trees and Bismarck palms (Bismarkia nobilis). Placed throughout are Steelhead and Cresta boulders.
Mimicking the ribbon steel fencing, this is a guardrail over a bridge made from black locust. The terraced cast-in-place planters are designed to suggest sedimentary layers. The retaining walls feature custom finishes that differ in materials, texture and color, with lighter colors and textures on top gradually changing to darker and rougher ones. In the planters are California Fan palms (Washingtonia filifera), Coast Live oaks (Quercus agrifolia), Paperbark trees (Melaleuca quinquenervia), Grey Desert Spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri) shrubs and Huntington Carpet Rosemary (Rosmarinus officianalis 'Huntington Carpet'). These steps to the lake are concrete inlaid with pavers.
The project included around 5,000 trees such as these cathedral oaks as well as desert palms, Joshua trees, sycamores, and mountain evergreens. A 100% recycled wood mulch was used to top dress these planters. The pavers are 6"x12", 12"x24" 12"x36", and 12"x48" in dark gray, beige and light gray, and were installed in a "pixelated" pattern. Concrete waste receptacles also line the walkway.
This concrete planter is an architectural feature designed by Studio-MLA to connect the roof to the ground. The ring of gravel inside the planter is where the roof can move when there is a seismic activity. The planter contains Cotoneasters and is surrounded by native no-mow turf with stone slabs to create a terraced condition to help retain the soil. Yellow and blue native agaves (Agave americana) are planted in the turf.
In addition to the lakes; arroyos, bioswales and underground cisterns collect, treat, and reuse about 75% of the site's stormwater total. The wide variety of microclimate zones attracts wildlife such as hawks, warblers, monarch butterflies, and honeybees. In the foreground are aloe vera plants. Next to those is a Paperbark tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia). The turf is Bermuda 'Bandera' - a low water use hybrid from West Coast Turf. Rainbird and Hunter provided the irrigation equipment.
Black Knight slate was used to build this planter. Chips from the slate surround it. In the planter are aloes, agaves and Dragon trees (Dracaena draco).
These benches, made with precast concrete, also serve as crowd control and crowd movement during large events at the stadium. The height of the bench changes to give the feeling that the grade is changing as you walk next to it. PHOTO COURTESY OF QCP CORP.
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"Stadiums can catalyze rejuvenation and capitalize on larger potential for their communities. Thanks to the vision of bold developers, they have become an extension of public realm and culturally connect within the communities that they are built." Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, a city anxiously in need of neighborhood parks, was also the site of a decommissioned racetrack named Hollywood Park. The land it occupied is being redeveloped as a master-planned community that will include more than 25 acres of public parks and open space to partially address the city's needs.
Already finished is the gleaming new, high-tech SoFi Stadium, home to the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers of the National Football League, and the anchor of the new 298-acre mixed-use campus, which maintained the moniker "Hollywood Park."
Knitting tightly together with the surrounding neighborhood, the design of this once-in-a-lifetime redevelopment leverages larger potentials: providing an enormous impact in the community that will greatly benefit from the infusion of energy and the economic boost. In the center of this new development is Lake Park; a jewel of the open spaces represented onsite.
The Necessity of Collaboration
The creation of the reimagined Hollywood Park was conceived with deep engagement from a broad coalition of community members, the owners, the city's Economic & Community Development Department and the design team, including landscape architectural firm Studio-MLA, all working hand in hand.
"Our involvement started long before the stadium was even a program on the project," says Kush Parekh lead designer on the project for Studio-MLA. "The land was purchased by developer Wilson Meany to turn into a mixed-use development; a really great opportunity to create urban infill. We started helping initially to solicit community input. That's where we found the need of the city of Inglewood for neighborhood parks and open space."
It was the driving force that Studio-MLA stayed true to even once the stadium became part of the plan, according to Parekh who adds, "It really made us think about how to strategize what a stadium should be - break the paradigm of a traditional stadium."
An enthusiastic mayor and an ownership team with a tremendous creative spirit for sports and for community further amplified the design team's motivation and imagination to push boundaries.
Design Intent
Going beyond the typical transformation that comes from a redevelopment, SoFi Stadium and the adjacent Lake Park break the paradigm of stadium design by capitalizing on Southern California's great weather, moving many activities that would typically have been inside to the outdoors for use by the community when the stadium is not in use.
The result is a 365-day-per-year destination that gives visitors access to gardens, parks, plazas, natural habitat, sports and family activities. Most importantly, surrounding residents now have new places in their city to connect and make memories. Entirely privately financed, SoFi Stadium mutually benefits public well-being and social values.
Keeping It Green
The landscape spaces of SoFi Stadium and the adjacent Lake Park are designed for ecosystems and water.
Limits to ecological restoration-due to climate change, impermeability, heat island, and air/water quality issues-led to solutions beyond conventional boundaries, including the 6-acre constructed lake that collects stormwater runoff, filtering pollutants through natural wetlands for site irrigation.
The novel water recycling system also serves as a community amenity, inspired by the original racetrack's water feature, and reaffirmed by wide community input as a preferred landscape attraction.
As part of meeting the over-arching goal that emphasized environmental impact and resilience, these three areas were targeted.
Plantings
"When you are dealing with a site this large, it's really tough to think about having only native plants," Parekh explains. "We started looking at this bigger construct of the Mediterranean biome. From one side of the stadium to the other, there is very stark differences between the plants."
Employing the biome's wide arrays of plantings and shrubs suited to hot, dry summers and frost-free winters, the project includes highly diverse, low-maintenance plant ecologies with 5,000 trees, from desert palms to mountain evergreens.
The specified trees included native species such as California Sycamores (Platanus racaemosa), Coast Live Oaks (Quercus agrifolia) and Englemann Oak (Quercus englemannii).
A wide array of non-native species were incorporated such as Mulga (Acacia aneura), Shoestring Acacia (Acacia stenophylla), Bitter Aloe (Aloe ferox), Strawberry Tree (Arbutus 'Marina'), Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris), Camphor Tree (Cinnamomum camphora), Rainbow Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus deglupta), Australian Coral Tree (Erythrina sykesii), Afghan Pine (Pinus eldarica) and African Sumac (Rhus lancea).
Native shrubs included Dwarf Coyote Bush, Island Snapdragon, Mound San Bruno Coffeeberry, and Giant Chain Fern.
Amongst the non-native shrubs planted were Small Cape Rush, Silver Torch, Dwarf Variegated Mirror Plant, Toothless Desert Spoon, Little Rev Flax Lilly, Silver Falls Dichondra, Coastal Gem Grevillea, Red Yucca, Dwarf Mat Rush, Variegated Dwarf Mat Rush, Soft Caress Mahonia, Dwarf Myrtle, Collingwood Ingram Rosemary, Coral Fountain, and a variety of agaves and chalksticks.
Water
SoFi Stadium's parks and open spaces are performative landscape features collecting, treating, and reusing about 75% of total stormwater. This includes the upper and lower lake separated by cascading waterfalls (accounting for around 16 million gallons of water), rolling arroyos, bioswales and underground cisterns.
Studio-MLA calls it the first such lake to successfully mix stormwater with reclaimed water, and the first-ever filtration system cleaning water before reuse. The filtered water is used as an irrigation source for the rest of the landscaped areas.
Working with the West Basin Municipal Water District, the water savings add up to about 26 million gallons per year, which equals the amount of drinking water for the region according to SoFi Stadium.
Materials
Some of the concrete used a special granite aggregate instead of cement, which is responsible for 90% of the embodied carbon of concrete. The aggregate was imported by ship from British Columbia but even when transportation emissions are included, the end result was a significant savings of embodied carbon.
Trademark Concrete, J&M Concrete and Shaw & Sons Concrete were used as hardscape installers. QCP Concrete provided some of the precast concrete architectural amenities and furniture like planters, benches, waste containers, and tables. Dark gray, light gray and beige 6"x12", 12"x24" 12"x36", and 12"x48" pavers were used here. Some of the provided Cresta stone and Steelhead stone boulders were used as benches. Lumber for the decking is black locust.
SoFi Stadium and the adjacent Lake Park were hailed as "revolutionary" by the Los Angeles Times, and designed to be a true community amenity for the people of Inglewood and the region.
Filed Under: 2023, DESTINATIONS, SO-FI STADIUM, LASN
