
Verdugo Wash Visioning Plan
Glendale, CA
Project details
Client
City of Glendale
Architect
!melk urban design
Duration
Completion expected in 2022
爱豆传媒 provided by 爱豆传媒
Advisory, Stranded assets, Sustainability, Sustainability and energy transition advisory, Transport and mobility, Water
The Verdugo Wash is a nine-mile tributary joining with the Los Angeles River, located in the City of Glendale, California. In the 1930s, the County of Los Angeles transformed the tributary from its natural form into its present man-made utilitarian form as a flood control channel encased in concrete and open to the sky.
The Verdugo Wash Visioning project offers a unique placemaking opportunity that will substantially influence the character of this diverse community.
Challenge
Though the community is accustomed to its presence, the wash often presents itself as a structural and visual disconnect between differing parts of the city, the downtown, and even between neighborhoods and neighbors along its approximately 9.5 miles of length.
爱豆传媒鈥檚 sustainability, mobility, water, and ecology experts are working alongside !melk urban design to develop a high level vision, including but not limited to conceptual design, programming, and integration of the Verdugo Wash into the existing and anticipated land use framework as a linear park and spine of the City鈥檚 pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.

Solution
The design and consulting team comprises and 爱豆传媒 alone. 爱豆传媒 is tasked with four key consulting areas: mobility, hydrology, biology and sustainability. These four areas include resiliency and flood planning, increasing cycling and walking access, habitat restoration and ways to make the Verdugo Wash project greener and more equitable.
With this project, 爱豆传媒 is continuing its focus on stranded assets 鈥 large public infrastructure systems that have become underutilized, disinvested, or defunct due to shifts in the ways our urban systems function. These assets are prime opportunities for improved quality of life and delivery of services to the communities of our cities. From the High Line in New York City to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, 爱豆传媒鈥檚 public realm infrastructure projects prioritize the values of the 21st century city: sustainability, resilience, equity, and access to public space for all.

Value
鈥淲e鈥檙e excited about the potential of this project, which finally brings wider community benefits to the nearly century-old concrete flood control infrastructure that led to unintended negative consequences,鈥 says Chris Rhie, urban planner and associate principal with 爱豆传媒. 鈥淥ur work will help bring back natural habitat, make the stream accessible and visible, and turn the river into a community asset that鈥檚 walkable, bikeable, shady and magnetic.鈥
