The entrance of MacArthur Park, one of the oldest parks in Los Angeles, is set to get a facelift as part of a $2.1 million project that broke ground Thursday.
Los Angeles City Councilman Gil Cedillo and other city officials were joined by fourth-graders from Esperanza Elementary School at a bustling intersection at Seventh and Alvarado streets to mark the start of construction.
“We are going to build an opening to this park, one that will match what is the grandeur we anticipate for this community,” Cedillo said.
The newly designed entranceway will be framed by a pair of 15-foot pillars that light up to display the words “Westlake” and “MacArthur Park,” and feature amphitheater-style seating areas near the lake. Work is expected to be completed by December, January at the latest, Cedillo aides said.
The revamping of the entranceway is part of a bigger effort by the councilman to bring more improvements to the park, and could lead to the creation of a master plan that maps out larger ambitions for the space, according to the council aides.
While the park is noted for being “one of the oldest parks in the city of Los Angeles and one of our most historic,” it also serves one of the most- dense communities in Los Angeles, with about 40,000 people living within a half- mile of it, Recreation and Parks General Manager Mike Shull said at Thursday’s ceremony.
The intersection where the park’s official entrance will stand is one of the “busiest pedestrian interchanges around the city,” Shull said.
MacArthur Park, created in the 1880s on swampland, once served as a vacation spot.
The park has undergone several revitalization attempts since 2002, with the addition of a Metro Red Line station and the opening in 2007 of the Levitt Pavilion amphitheater.
A boathouse that served paddle rides in the park’s lake was re-opened in 2010, but recently had to be shut down due to its dilapidated condition, Cedillo aides said.
A recent public art projects in which the lake at the center of the park was filled with about 2,000 giant, painted spheres brought attention back to the park, including Angelenos who typically do not frequent the park.
This week, National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu paid the park a visit as part of a tour of cultural assets in Los Angeles.
The entranceway project is funded with $1.5 million in state grants. State funding also paid for a $500,000 project to save water and improve irrigation at the park. A remaining $100,000 will go toward security cameras and better lighting at Toberman Recreation Center in the nearby Pico-Union area.
Cedillo aide Sharon Lowe said they hope to begin another project as soon as the current one is completed that will bring American Disability Act- related upgrades to the park.
— Wire reports