AIRPORT PARK FACT SHEET
 
Location   Airport Avenue at Bundy Drive and Centinela Avenue, Santa Monica, California
Client   City of Santa Monica
Lead Designer   ah’bé landscape architects, Culver City, California
Firm’s Role

 		   * Park planning and programming
* Community approvals
* Schematic design, design development
* Construction documentation and administration
Site   Originally part of Santa Monica Airport, the site was most recently used as a shuttle parking lot for Santa Monica Community College and car dealer storage.
Project Phase   Opening is Sunday, April 29, 2007
Project Elements



 		   * State-of-the-art soccer field
* off-leash dog park with separate areas for large and small dogs , planted with fragrant ground cover and
   shrubbery
* restroom and storage facilities
* children’s playground
* informal open space and picnic areas, 6 BBQs
* 80-foot-tall non-glare lighting standards with shielded lamps for the soccer field
Environmental Features







 		   * The design incorporates sustainable techniques and features that address storm water management,
   landscape planting and irrigation.
* Synthetic turf was installed on the sports field using a $1.5-milllion state grant obtained by the city.
* Infiltration beds under the sports field will detain storm water from portions of the airport and the park,
   improving the city’s storm water management.
* Underneath the soccer field, which is covered with synthetic grass, a retention system, series of bio-swales,
   and retaining area for storm water run-off.
* Parking lots paved in permeable asphalt pavement for storm-water retention.
* Infiltration system in dog park that captures water.
 
Principal Goals

 		   * To design a new park for the City of Santa Monica that serves as a gateway to the airport and increases the
   amount of green space for the residents of Santa Monica and sustainable design in the city.
* To upgrade and enhance Airport Avenue and its connection with Donald Douglas Loop Road
* To create a visual buffer between the airport and the adjacent commercial and residential neighborhoods.
Design




 		   * The project is a large-scale conversion of former airport site into a green space.
* To reflect the industrial culture of the airport, industrial materials -- such as a galvanized metal, uncoated
   chain link fence -- were selected, instead of the colorful materials often found in parks.
* As this airport connects the city to other parts of the world and is a place where the lives of people from
   distant places intersect, the firm tried to express these notions in the development of pathways and
   connections in the park. Designers thought of paths as pointing to distant points elsewhere and their
   intersections as abstractly representing people making connections.
About the firm








 		   An award-winning landscape architecture and urban design firm established in 1987, ah’bé landscape architects is respected for creating innovative solutions that are artful, environmentally responsible, socially relevant and technologically innovative.

The 18-person firm approaches projects from a contextual perspective, investigating site, program and project intent with rigor, intuition and rationality. Their mission is to create innovative and engaging landscapes that transform the viewers’ perceptions of nature.

The firm has worked on a wide variety of project types and scales, including gardens and parks, hospitals and medical facilities, recreation facilities, public plazas and streets, business improvement districts, mixed-use commercial development, schools and institutions, transportation, multi-family and public housing, private residences, trail systems, landscape restorations and reclamations, watershed related projects, and landfill conversions.
 
For further information, please contact: Barbara Pressman, CA&A PR
(323) 936-1447      barbara@caapr.com
 

This page was last updated on 04/18/07.