Fourteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

In response to ecological and cultural strains on Los Angeles during the 1920s, there was a call for the efficient management of water, expansion of public parks, and new transportation infrastructure. A solution was proposed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm to construct a series of interconnected parkways that would serve as multimodal transportation routes while also providing green space for recreation, wildlife habitat, and stormwater management. For a number of reasons, the proposed park corridors were never constructed; however, the forethought of the design approach and the subsequent floods that devastated Los Angeles in 1938, offers a rich opportunity for backtesting how the original parkway designs could have performed during large storm events. Digital applications, such as HGIS, AutoCad, and SketchUp provide methods to simulate, test, and interpret how natural systems might have interacted with the built environment in a historical context. Digital models offer ways to analyze ecological, functional, and experiential landscape systems to uncover potential outcomes. This innovative research approach offers new applications for testing and visualizing proposed (and existing) designs as well as technical insights and methodologies to inform contemporary sustainable development strategies. Using this method, this study examines a portion of the Hollywood-Palos Verdes Parkway, utilizing proposed grading and planting plans, 1923 USGS topography maps, and records from a historic 1938 flood event, to digitally model the landscape, revealing how the design could have managed the space during various levels of rainfall.