Agence Ter Wins Pershing Square Competition

The announcement comes just over a couple weeks after the news of the four finalists in the competition to replace the 1992 landscape designed by Ricardo Legorreta with Laurie Olin. The square, which dates back to the mid-1800s, is being redesigned in response to the changing demographics of downtown Los Angeles: its residential population has doubled since 2000, bringing with it new food, nightlife, cultural and retail venues.

Agence Ter is partnering with local landscape architecture firm SALT Landscape Architects and working with a slew of specialized partners: Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning and Fehr and Peers, Community Arts Resources (CARS), Kelly Shannon, Leo Villareal, Pentagram, still room, Rachel Allen Architecture, KPFF, M-E Engineers, and Lighting Design Alliance.

The short design statement from Agence Ter and Team:

The design proposal balances notions of a park and a square, hardscape and green lawn, sun and shade, and metropolitan and local. The main project elements — the smart canopy with the boxes, the gardens with the tree canopy, the urban edges and the great lawn — are each specific, yet with very different expressions and articulations of this continuous surface idea.

The design competition was carried out by Pershing Square Renew, Inc, a non-profit collaboration between government, community, and business leaders in Downtown LA, "all dedicated to supporting and facilitating Pershing Square’s revitalization. We want to make sure that Pershing Square is an authentic reflection of Downtown LA’s thriving renaissance by creating a world-class public space for those who live in, work in, visit, and love DTLA."