L.A.'s CleanTech corridor: new visions for the riverfront | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

L.A.'s CleanTech corridor: new visions for the riverfront | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

Visions are developing of what the proposed CleanTech Corridor might look like when it eventually begins to emerge in downtown Los Angeles.

The Southern California Institute of Architecture launched a competition that invited entrants to reconceptualize the crumbling, 4-mile stretch of land adjacent to the Los Angeles River. The school, known as SCI-Arc, announced more than $10,000 in prizes Friday for the winners. The city-run Community Redevelopment Agency has also asked companies to submit proposals by Dec. 3 for revitalizing a 20-acre section of the corridor.

Los Angeles officials, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have long planned to convert the dilapidated area into a booming and innovative clean technology district. Proponents imagine the area as an incubator for start-ups and an industrial park stuffed with jobs-providing and environmentally sustainable companies.

SCI-Arc’s campus is a former freight depot sitting in the planned 2,000-acre CleanTech Corridor space. “We live in this district and we want a voice in the discussion, a dog in the fight,” said Peter Zellner, a program coordinator at the school. “Until now, it’s been focused from 10,000 feet in the air. We want to talk about the impact on the ground.”

The competition, co-sponsored by The Architect’s Newspaper, attracted 70 entries from 11 countries, including China, Germany and Russia. Jurors including working architects, Princeton University’s architecture dean, a representative from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and a Los Angeles deputy mayor.