Elysian Valley Urban Campus

My Senior Thesis Project, recipient of the Interim Design Award, Outstanding Senior Project Award, and published in the Second Edition of Stable Magazine: Patchwork

The oftentimes criminalized art form of graffiti is intertwined with the heritage of Elysian Valley. Graffiti is a form of heritage art in the area, as a lot of Frogtown’s visual identity comes from its murals and tags dispersed throughout its streets and river basin. This art form is praised by the local art organizations, yet there is no space within the town to create this art in a safe and legal environment; this project seeks to amend that gap in accessibility. The site runs directly parallel to the LA River and spans from Dallas Street to Birkdale Street. Aligned in the center of Frogtown, the project bridges the divide between the newly redeveloped northern half of Frogtown and the primarily single-family home southern portion, which is where most of the original residents of Frogtown live. The site of this project meets that cultural divide and utilizes the original Frogtown culture to define its program. The program enables the artistic development of Frogtown and the restoration of the LA riverfront while preserving the manufacturing jobs and local heritage art culture. It consists of exhibition and gallery spaces centered around the historic street art of Frogtown and the greater LA area; a spray paint factory with a direct retail component; subsidized housing for both factory workers and artists alike; and a landscape that creates a direct connection from the local housing and the restored natural riverbed, utilizing anti-flood terracing to facilitate open wall space for the legal creation of street art.