Civic Spine at Taylor Yards
Reparative Urbanism: Los Angeles River Basin Los Angeles, USA Teamwork: Akua Appiah-Adu + Joel Aidoo Professor: Milton Curry
Circulation Layer
Zoning Layer
Zoning Layer
Transportation Layer
The Taylor Yards project explores reparative urbanism as a way of rebuilding relationships between people, land, and the LA River.
Inspired by the flow of the river, a continuous civic spine connects housing, cultural spaces, recreation, economic activity, and public landscape.
Landscape becomes social infrastructure, supporting gathering, ecological restoration, flood resilience, and the memory of the site.
Through affordable housing, collective ownership, and community investment, the project aims to create long-term value for existing communities while fostering greater access, connection, ownership, and belonging.
Gradient
Children at Taylor Yards
COLLAGES
Creation of an inhabitable river bank by adding terraced seating
Enhancing park space
SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
SECTION
LONG ELEVATION
View showing the railway, murals to support local artists and community pockets of parks
Creation of inhabitable bridges across the LA to address the issue of connectivity
Addressing the issue of contamination across the site
Housing is elevated above a porous ground plane of community, cultural, and commercial spaces, creating a gradient from private living to public life. Rather than separating where people live from where they gather, work, and exchange, the project layers these programs along a continuous civic spine, forming a gradient of activity that connects housing to the LA River landscape.
CONCEPT
Engaging the LA River
View showing the housing above and community spaces below
Gentrification
Engaging the LA River
AXONOMETRIC
Adopting and adapting the shape by rigidifying the river to suit the context
Gradient Program across the site
STREETSCAPE
SECTION
View showing the communal park
RIVERSCAPE
