L.A.’s New Look

The Los Angeles International Airport is on its way to its final destination: creating a calm, visually interesting and accommodating environment for the hundreds of travelers that pack its grounds each day.

The project’s master planning and landscape design firm began this project with the goal of creating an “airport-as-garden” look, explained Jim Keenan, project manager, ima+design Group. “The idea was to create the California garden look so that as passengers arrive, they would see materials that are recognizably Californian.”

The materials used to create this type of look were the palm tree and birds of paradise.

In addition to giving the airport more of a Southern Californian look, the designers wanted to decrease the amount of visual noise emanating from the space.

“What was existing was dominated by buildings and there was no rhythm between the light pylons,” Keenan related. “We wanted to create a strong rhythm with the pylons to unify the streetscape.”

To achieve this goal, 15 light pylons, each 110 feet tall, were installed to form a ring at the airport’s Century and Sepulveda boulevard interchange.  “The idea was to create a gateway that you could approach from any direction,” Keenan remarked. “It played off the circular space of the interchange.”

Other pylons 60 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter serve as passenger guides throughout the airport.

To increase pedestrian safety outside the airport, the designers pulled the sidewalks away from the curb to allow for a parkway. The parkway gave the designers the ability to introduce different levels of trees to serve as a barrier between the street and to provide a canopy.

One of the more unique elements to the airport’s landscape renovation is a planting container totaling 8,000 linear feet, suspended from the upper roadway railing between terminals no. 1 and no. 7.  Keenan explained that in doing research of different airports around the world, some of the most beautifully landscaped airports contained this element. By filling the container with the Carpet Rose, the designers felt they could provide a unified theme in a chaotic space.

“There’s a lot of chaos going on in the terminal with the different parking structures appearing randomly outside,” he said. “Using the carpet rose, which blooms nine out of 12 months of the year here, we were able to provide unifying color throughout the terminal.”

The gateway project took about nine to 10 months to complete, Keenan said, and it was not without its challenges. Some of the biggest hurdles the contractors had to face were underground utilities and hidden obstructions. “The placement of trees and pylons had to be adjusted quite a few times due to finding these obstructions,” he acknowledged. But, because the design group was able to work in conjunction with the landscape architect, general contractor and contractors specializing in lighting, container soil and plant materials.

“There were quite a few players involved in this project,” Keenan related. “Where this project did well is that it was a collaborative effort. Everyone worked together very well.”

While the gateway project is just one element of the overall beautification plan, some plans have been put on hold because of the terrorist attacks.

“We were in the middle of continuing with the rest of the terminal before Sept. 11,” Keenan noted. “Now with security and the budget, that’s been temporarily postponed. What has been implemented is only a piece of our master plan.”

The author is Internet Editor of Lawn & Landscape Online.