ASCE Los Angeles Section

La Bea Avenue - between Fountain Avenue and Romaine Street, West Hollywood, CA 90046

The La Brea Avenue Streetscape Project was a successful transformation of sidewalks, medians, landscaping and lighting while incorporating sustainable elements into the design. The project included infiltration parkways and permeable walking surfaces to allow for water on the sidewalks to infiltrate back to the ground. Median islands were added using a palette of plants and trees that don’t require a lot of watering. Then energy efficient lighting was installed to complete the project.

The City of West Hollywood is proud of its La Brea Avenue Streetscape Project. Although the portion of the La Brea Avenue in our City is only three blocks long, combined with Santa Monica Boulevard, these transit corridors are part of the most heavily used arterial streets in the region. Therefore it has always been a goal to make this area a gateway to welcome all to the City of West Hollywood.

With partial funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the City was able to transform this street with lots of concrete sidewalks and very little greenery, into a beautiful streetscape that is great for motorists, transit riders, and enhances the pedestrian experience on La Brea Avenue. From the very beginning of design the City decided to use this project as a trial for sustainable design features that we would like to use elsewhere in our City. This includes the infiltration parkways, the permeable adaptive paving around the trees, and energy efficient LED pedestrian level lighting.

The existing sidewalks along La Brea Avenue were 15’ and 10’ wide concrete sidewalks with no landscaped parkways adjacent to the curb. There were large ficus trees that have long outgrown their tiny 4’ x 4’ tree wells and whose roots have been uplifting the adjacent sidewalks making it an unpleasant area to walk. The City decided that this area was in much need of green space so we identified areas where we could add parkways to the ocean of concrete sidewalks. We wanted to try to incorporate a more sustainable greening of the streetscape by introducing deep infiltration parkways so that any rainwater or nuisance water that landed on the sidewalks would run off into these parkways, rather than going into the street gutter. That way it would go back to the ground rather than into the storm drain system that eventually goes to the ocean.

The infiltration parkways are three feet deep and designed with open graded gravel, then a layer of sandy loam of top of that, followed by layer of dirt and finally mulch around the drought tolerant plants. These infiltration planters are working since installation, and we’ve added 4,040 square feet of green space to La Brea Avenue.

Another creative practice we tried on this project was to incorporate permeable walking surfaces into the design. We currently use decomposed granite along Santa Monica Boulevard and cast iron tree grates elsewhere in the City. Instead we were able to use what we are calling our adaptive paving system that combines decorative crushed granite, often used in pool decks, with an epoxy pebble bond that allows for permeability. Other benefits include providing tree roots enough room to breathe, allowing the tree to receive fertilizers, and the product is easy to chip away as the tree trunk gets larger. The walking surface is level we have already expanded its use elsewhere in the City. The public has embraced the look and feel of it saying that the old decomposed granite looks like dirt and this looks much more polished. Permeable hardscape allows for more infiltration and less runoff into the storm drain system, so the City encourages more use of this system.

Median islands in the center of the roadway were added in each of the three blocks of the project. Again keeping with the sustainability of the project, we selected plants that doesn’t require a lot of watering were used and irrigation bubblers were also incorporated into the design to avoid wasteful irrigation overspray. With the new median islands we were able to add 1689 square feet of green space with just medians. Adding green space whenever possible is an important directive from our City Council and their commitment to the environment, therefore we count every square foot added.

At night La Brea Avenue could be dark and adding pedestrian level lighting to supplement the roadway streetlights was an added enhancement that we included in the project. The lights were designed to match the iconic blue pedestrian globe lights we have on Santa Monica Blvd, but instead of the high pressure sodium lights, we used energy efficient LED lights for La Brea Avenue. These lights have been a great addition to the night time feel of the street and we already received several complement from night time bus riders who say it’s nice to get off the bus and walk down the well-lit sidewalks.

The design, plans, and specifications for the La Brea Streetscape Project were prepared by the civil engineering firm Kabbara Engineering, of Orange, California . STL Landscape, Inc. of Los Angeles, California, was the contractor and completed the project in March 2014.

This project has been featured in the following publications (copy of articles has been attached):

The Source, Transportation News & Views, October 25, 2013
WEHO Ville, WeHo Celebrates La Brea Avenue Upgrades, October 28, 2013

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The La Brea Avenue Streetscape Project was a successful transformation of sidewalks, medians, landscaping and lighting while incorporating sustainable elements into the design. The project included infiltration parkways and permeable walking surfaces to allow for water on the sidewalks to infiltrate back to the ground. Median islands were added using a palette of plants and trees that don’t require a lot of watering. Then energy efficient lighting was installed to complete the project.

The City of West Hollywood is proud of its La Brea Avenue Streetscape Project. Although the portion of the La Brea Avenue in our City is only three blocks long, combined with Santa Monica Boulevard, these transit corridors are part of the most heavily used arterial streets in the region. Therefore it has always been a goal to make this area a gateway to welcome all to the City of West Hollywood.

With partial funding from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the City was able to transform this street with lots of concrete sidewalks and very little greenery, into a beautiful streetscape that is great for motorists, transit riders, and enhances the pedestrian experience on La Brea Avenue. From the very beginning of design the City decided to use this project as a trial for sustainable design features that we would like to use elsewhere in our City. This includes the infiltration parkways, the permeable adaptive paving around the trees, and energy efficient LED pedestrian level lighting.

Please Note: MLAB is submitting this nomination on behalf of the original nominator as it has been selected to receive this year’s MLAB Outstanding Public Civil Engineering Project in Transportation (Under $10 Million).