REIMAGINING THE 2 FREEWAY

Los Angeles, CA, USA
STOSS Landscape Urbanism

Los Angeles County hosts 515 miles of freeway and expressway, most built as part of a 1958 highway master plan that has faced opposition due to the use of eminent domain used to displace residents, almost always in communities of color and poorer neighborhoods, which are rarely served by the highways, but demolish existing communities. Beginning in the 1970s, opposition to Los Angeles highways emerged due to high gasoline prices and environmental concerns that called for mass transit other than buses. The 2 Freeway proposal by STOSS uses a stub northwest of downtown Los Angeles to challenge proposals that erase highway infrastructure, and instead remakes the freeway as a social connector that absorbs smog and carbon and creates different microclimates with cooling towers, dew harvesters, rain towers, solar shaders and carbon absorbing pavement. The infrastructure can be thought of as a machine that is an amenity for local residents who would previously use the freeway to leave their neighborhoods, but now spend time occupying the infrastructure. The project would decrease the amount of water flowing directly into the Los Angeles River and supply the project with irrigation in advance of oncoming storms so the remaining water can be slowly drained into the ground, or into the river at off-peak times to prevent stormwater flooding and overflow. The 2 Freeway proposal by STOSS is one of two invited by architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times. Michael Maltzan Architecture also proposed transforming the Arroyo Seco Bridge, part of the 134 freeway, into an eco-friendly tunnel with cross-hatched walls, hanging vegetation and solar panels.

2016
560 acres
317 feet above sea level

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