Culture in Concrete

CULTURE IN CONCRETE: Art and the Re-imagination of the Los Angeles River as Civic Space by John C. Arroyo B.A., Public Relations Minor, Urban Planning and Development University of Southern California, 2002 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES AND PLANNING IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN CITY PLANNING at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY June 2010 © 2010 John C. Arroyo. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. THESIS COMMITTEE A committee of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning has examined this Masters Thesis as follows: Brent D. Ryan, PhD Assistant Professor in Urban Design and Public Policy Thesis Advisor Susan Silberberg-Robinson, MCP Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning Thesis Reader Los Angeles River at the historic Sixth Street Bridge/Sixth Street Viaduct. © Kevin McCollister 2 CULTURE IN CONCRETE: Art and the Re-imagination of the Los Angeles River as Civic Space by John C. Arroyo Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 20, 2010 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in City Planning ABSTRACT The Los Angeles River is the common nature of the River space. They have expressed physical, social, and cultural thread that themselves through place-based work, most of connects many of Los Angeles’ most diverse and which has been independent of any formal underrepresented communities, the majority of urban planning, urban design, or public policy which comprise the River’s downstream support or intervention. corridor. It is a valuable resource that crosses While this thesis acknowledges boundaries of race, class, and human and physical contemporary master planning efforts currently geography. Once a natural and alluvial river, a underway to transform the River, it makes a case series of devastating floods led the Army Corps for the power of underrepresented groups of Engineers to pave the 52-mile River with (artists) to create value outside of traditional, concrete in the 1930s. The River has been formal, and normative urban planning and forgotten, abandoned, degraded, and largely design interventions reliant on government misunderstood by many ever since. support, public-private partnerships, and Artists have taken to the River as a corporate interests. Furthermore, this thesis creative venue. Their actions have re-defined considers popular critiques and previous the River and have allowed us (and impel us) to interpretations of civic space in Los Angeles. It re-imagine the River as the civic space that Los reviews Los Angeles’ transition from a once Angeles is desperately seeking, but has yet to mobile, accessible, and largely homogenous city find, despite many unsuccessful and grand to one of the world’s most diverse and park-poor attempts. metropolises without a strong civic space. This This thesis examines the patterns, thesis provides examples of the Los Angeles’ motivations, and history behind over 40 largely recent and future attempts to create civic space unheralded art projects over a 20-year period in downtown Los Angeles and offers alternatives along the River’s Glendale Narrows, Lower from domestic and international cases reflecting Arroyo Seco, and downtown Los Angeles the principles of landscape urbanism, everyday segments. It illustrates why generations of urbanism, and temporary urbanism. artists representing all creative disciplines have By engaging with the River as space for been inspired to engage with the River’s critical human and cultural expression, the concrete form and abandoned nature. From research in this thesis suggests that artists are photography to site-specific dance, poetry to offering key insights for how to plan, design, and new media, these artists have reveled in the un- re-imagine the Los Angeles River as civic space. designed, un-planned, and the spontaneous Brent D. Ryan, PhD Assistant Professor in Urban Design and Public Policy Thesis Advisor Susan Silberberg-Robinson, MCP Lecturer in Urban Design and Planning Thesis Reader 3 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE A native Angeleno, John is an urban planner, cultural producer, and writer who recently completed a Master in City Planning and Certificate in Urban Design at MIT’s Department Studies and Planning (DUSP). While at MIT, John specialized in urban design, cultural development, and community regeneration. These interests led to various research and client-based projects in Cambridge, Boston, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Buffalo, NY. He was also a Research Assistant for MIT DUSP’s partnership with the Leveraging Investments in Creativity’s (LINC) Space for Change Program, a national arts initiative of the Ford Foundation and the MetLife Foundation focused on the role of affordable and engaged cultural facilities in community development, economic development, and urban design. He was active as an officer for the DUSP Students of Color Committee, a student representative for the Minority Student Recruitment Committee, a DJ for WMBR 88.1 FM, a member of the MIT Center for Future Civic Media’s Department of Play Working Group, and a founding member of Queers in Urban Spaces and Planning (QUSP). Prior to pursuing graduate studies, John fostered an extensive background and dedication to arts and cultural work. At the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, he managed professional development, technical assistance, and community cultural planning initiatives for individual artists, municipalities, and nonprofits arts organizations. John also coordinated programs for La Plaza de Cultura y Artes, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, The Getty Foundation, Los Angeles Conservancy, Ruder Finn Arts and Communications Counselors, Inc., Canon Theatricals, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). John has served as a grant panelist and juror for various local, regional, and national foundations, municipal governments, and arts and cultural organizations. As an undergraduate at the University of Southern California (USC), John studied journalism and urban planning and development, where his commitment to Los Angeles arts and culture organizations earned him a 2002 USC Board of Trustees Renaissance Scholar award. He was recently awarded the American Planning Association’s 2010 Judith McManus Price Scholarship for his commitment to planning issues in minority communities, selected as the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2009 Mildred Colodny National Graduate Diversity Fellow, named a 2008 Latino Graduate Scholar by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, and received a Certificate of Recognition for outstanding cultural community service by the California State Assembly in 2007 and 2010. Formerly, John has served as a nationally elected member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council and board member of the Highland Park Heritage Trust, Southern California Planning Congress, National Arts Marketing Project – Los Angeles Steering Committee, and the Emerging Arts Leaders/L.A. Task Force. He is also active with the Latino Urban Forum, Las Angelitas del Pueblo, and the Los Angeles Conservancy. He enjoys exploring cities, independent music, historic maps, and landscape photography. 4 DEDICATION To Los Angeles, and all those who work to make it a better place. To my abuelita (grandmother), for the years spent working in a textile factory alongside the River in order to give me a better life. To all who dare to express themselves – no matter the obstacles. 5 “Nobody knows Los Angeles without knowing its river.” -- Joan Didion, writer 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My list of people to acknowledge is extensive (and well worth a second page). To my thesis advisor and professor, Brent D. Ryan, Kincaid, Janine Marchese, Sandra Wellford, and for believing in my topic right from the start, Karen Yegian. guiding me through the thesis writing process, allowing me to challenge ideas, urging me to be To the special advocates I met with along the Los “transgressive,” and above all, teaching me to see Angeles River, especially Jenny Price, for seeing and apply the fields of urban planning and urban the relevance of my research interests early on design – and my role within them – in ways I and taking the time to share the River with the would have never imagined. masses; Joe Linton, for advocating for the River in every which way and for being one of its most To my thesis reader, Research Assistant director, special friends; Shelly Backlar, for leading a vision and professor, Susan Silberberg-Robinson, for to make the River a better place; Lewis always taking the time, understanding, pushing MacAdams, for the poetry, research leads, and and supporting me to take my interest in arts, perseverance; Patty Lundeen, for the new ideas culture, and urban planning and urban design to and sharing special stories; Lupe Vela and the the next level, and believing my potential was City of Los Angeles Ad Hoc River Committee, for far greater than I ever imagined. helping me find my way through the City; and Carole Armstrong and the entire staff at the To my academic advisor, Dennis Frenchman, for Department of Public Works, Bureau of helping get me to MIT in the first place, sharing Engineering, Los Angeles River Special Project, an interest in arts and culture, and dedicating for being “Riverly.” himself to the success of all his students.

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