Tongva Park

Tongva Park & Ken Genser Square

Tongva Park & Ken Genser Square is a bold, imaginative public park project driven by extensive stakeholder outreach and a strong bias for sustainable design. The Design-Build team transformed a vacant lot next to City Hall and the pier into “the heart of the City” – a unifying center of public respite and event areas. Named for the original LA basin inhabitants, Tongva Park features unique steel observation decks, gardens, public art, children’s play area, water features and a pedestrian footbridge. Unique design elements included a “terraforming” approach involving 80,000 CY of earthwork arranged to mimic the native arroyo environment with natural spaces sheltered from the park’s urban setting, as well as a building artfully bermed through a hillside. Other engineering challenges included dedication and extension of Olympic Avenue; abandonment, relocation and preservation of on-site power/sewer/domestic water; plus deployment of recycled water from a nearby urban runoff treatment plant. 360° communication and integration of community input was paramount and Fuscoe was instrumental in facilitating this feedback.