2020 Sustainable Innovation Award
Sites and Landscape - Water
The Bradley Plaza Green Alley pilot project is both an innovative stormwater and community project that reimagines how alleys function in the Los Angeles area. As the first project to be unveiled for Pacoima Beautiful’ s Urban Greening Plan, Bradley Plaza Green Alley transforms an underused alleyway between a major street and a low-income housing community into a shared space that provides ADA-accessible amenities, introduces nature into the city, reduces the heat island effect, and manages stormwater.
Bradley Plaza Green Alley aims to achieve Envision Gold certification, which recognizes sustainability in infrastructure projects. The project sits well within its surroundings, exceeds Los Angeles’ low impact guidelines for stormwater management, uses recycled materials, incorporates landscaping that improves public health, and serves the needs of the community – making it an excellent fit for the certification.
Looking Forward but Remembering the Past
The project is groundbreaking in several ways and provides a new template for transforming Los Angeles’ 900+ miles of alleys. However, the heritage of Pacoima was not forgotten, and as a gesture to the indigenous Tataviam Band of Mission Indians that put Pacoima on the map, Tataviam symbols were designed and incorporated into the custom salvaged timber amenity elements throughout the project. The alley’s bonded asphalt surfacing and pattern provide a further link back to the City’s heritage through its depiction of running water as large streams of water used to flow through the area from the surrounding mountain canyons. These reference that this project is a stormwater mitigation project at heart but also so much more in its finished form. The project has transformed a standard and downtrodden service alley into a Place for People and over time will help reconnect the community to this space and the heritage of the City.