Campus Central Park – Playa Vista Parks & Open Space

The Central Park is placed near the east end of continuously expanding Playa Vista, a mixed use development. The project is surrounded by large empty plots of land sometime to be developed fully, a newly finished business park, another grouping of vacant office buildings on the side and existing buildings of Hughes Aircraft Co., where the famed plywood plane Spruce Goose was constructed. Once the master planned project is completed, the Central Park will be completely surrounded by 4-5 story office buildings with highly controlled entrance and exit points. The 9 acre Central Park itself is a beautiful photogenic park with man made topography to achieve variety of relaxing, stimulating outdoor rooms, banks of amphitheaters, artful planting of sustainable native cacti and other flora, compositional and systematically configured artificial alleys and valleys with visual vistas running North and South. The notable programs of the park are: ecologically hosting water pools and creeks, popular sports facilities including beach volleyball and basketball courts an artificially carpeted half size soccer field, an engaging children playground, and a turban shaped stage and public bathrooms below, all designed by Michael Maltzan Architects. The stage enclosure is covered by a transparent synthetic membrane that lights up like a lantern at night and configured from few co-eccentric circles suggestive of turbo like energetic circular movement. (review by Orhan Ayyüce at http://archinect.com/features/article/4373663/review-central-park-at-playa-vista-by-michael-maltzan-architects.