Big But Familiar Park Changes Mirror L.A.'s Issues

Exposition Park in Los Angeles is on the verge of major changes -- a retired space shuttle, the last days of a stadium, new transit access, and the demolition of a piece of big-name architecture. But looking at its history, changes are nothing new.

1 minute read

May 18, 2011, 11:00 AM PDT

By Nate Berg


This piece from the Los Angeles Times looks at the park's history in the city, and how the changes coming to the park underline the challenges of the city.

"The 160-acre park has long been a microcosm of Los Angeles - the fragmented, quickly growing city in miniature. It has continually absorbed not just new buildings but new visions of L.A.'s civic character.

In that sense, the latest developments - and the promise and anxiety they bring - look awfully familiar. How to protect or carve out open space, how to fit new transit lines atop a built-out city, how to gauge the historical value of idiosyncratic postwar landmarks: These are pressing questions not just for Exposition Park and the neighborhood around it but for Los Angeles and most of Southern California."

Monday, May 16, 2011 in Los Angeles Times

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