A Chinatown park aims to link residents to their neighborhood
By Wendy Chan
In a time of “cultural wars,” writing about Los Angeles’ relationship with its Chinatown is fraught with danger. Suffice it to say that Los Angeles Chinatown is a place that mirrors the experiences of an immigrant group targeted by systematic racial discrimination for over two centuries. Chinatown has been many things—ghetto, business center, massacre site, tourist trap, and hip neighborhood—but it has never been a place with parks and open space. Until recently, there was only one park, Alpine Recreation Center, built in the 1950s, serving the densely populated neighborhood. Two new parks have been completed within the last five years. The first, Los Angeles Historic State Park, was developed on the old “Cornfields” site adjacent to Chinatown and opened in 2017. The second, Ord and Yale Street Park, opened in 2021.
Designed by the landscape architecture and planning firm, AHBE/MIG, Ord and Yale Street Park represents the transformation of a once-vacant, one-acre hillside into a new pocket neighborhood park for the community. Located directly behind the Chinatown Branch Library, the site has a steep elevation change of more than 100 feet from the entry to the top of the park. On the first visit to the site, elderly women were observed walking up the steep hillside carrying suitcases and bags of groceries to their houses. It was immediately clear that the project was about providing community connections and a cultural journey.
The park’s design developed from an idea that a person can experience 10,000 metaphorical journeys in the park, while pursing health, well-being, and community. The design team’s challenge was to utilize the topography with a consideration of the neighborhood’s diverse demographics and multi-generational families.