LA Plaza de Cultura
LA Plaza, Plaza House, early 1920’s/ LAPL
Aerial view. C.1927 / ww
11 September 2015 Workshop: Documentation / Design / Construction
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LA Plaza de Cultura: Documentation
VBB exterior wall, wallpaper at interior face, c c Inspection, early 1940’s, / GTL|HA 1880’s / GTL|HA Photo-documentation
11 September 2015 Workshop: 2 Documentation / Design / Construction
LA Plaza de Cultura: Design & Reuse
VBB pediment; field survey sketch
VBB pediments, CADD version
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LA Plaza de Cultura: Design & Reuse Programmatic Adaptations: A minimally invasive touch
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LA Plaza de Cultura: Construction Adaptively detailed: Windows at PH interior wall, during
Windows, Grade A
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LA Plaza de Cultura: Construction Adaptively Reused:
You Are Here
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California Preservation Foundation Special Workshop • Sept. 11, 2015 LA Plaza De Cultura y Artes: Documentation, Design, Construction Overview of Presentation by Doug Suisman FAIA Principal, Suisman Urban Design
Developing the Master Site Plan
1. District Origins / Laws of the Indies The LA Plaza site is part of El Pueblo, the founding settlement of Los Angeles, which was planned in loose accordance with the Laws of the Indies. El Pueblo’s central public plaza, which faces the site, is one of the key characteristics of cities created under the laws. Buildings adjacent to the plaza have a key role in its form and function. This section, based on original research and documentation, reviews the Laws and their relevance for El Pueblo and the development of the site.
2. Reconstructed History of the Site In its adjacency to the original Spanish colonial church of Los Angeles, the site is of critical historic importance. This section reconstructs the development of the site in its relationship to the church, the plaza, and Main Street, through original research involving close analysis of historic photographs, archival drawings, and contemporaneous publications.
Workshop for the California Preservation Foundation • Sept. 11, 2015
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3. Impact of Civic Center Planning For nearly one hundred years, the planning and construction of government buildings - municipal, county, state, and federal - have impacted and even threatened the historic district of El Pueblo. This original analysis of the sequence of planning initiatives to create a vast Los Angeles “civic center” shows the changing strategies and impacts for the historic district and its structures, including the plaza, the plaza church, and the site of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
4. Proposed Master Site Plan Based on its historic research and other resources, in 2007 the design team developed a comprehensive site and development plan for LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes which aimed to integrate the institution with its historic seeting: the plaza, El Pueblo, and the surrounding areas. The 2008 recession forced a significant curtailment of the plan, but elements remain and some have been implemented.
5. Epilogue: the Campo Santo, El Pasaje, and the “Cultural Village” The initial phase of the proposed linking “pasaje” from Union Station to Fort Moore was partially realized, but was impacted by the discovery of remains within the Campo Santo on the site. This section asseses the status of the pasaje, or paseo, in light of the imminent construction of the massive “Cultural Village”, which may create the necessary foot traffic to enliven the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes block and site.
Workshop for the California Preservation Foundation • Sept. 11, 2015
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California Preservation Foundation Special Workshop – September 11, 2015 LA Plaza De Cultura y Artes: Documentation, Design, and Construction Overview of Presentation by Michael Matteucci AIA Principal, Chu +Gooding Architects Research and Development of the Construction Documents
1. The Evolving Plan The La Plaza De Cultura y Artes was originally envisioned as an institutional facility with pre-function space, extensive educational mission and revenue producing program including pre-function space, a lecture hall and a Culinary Arts Center. As part of the economic downturn in 2008, a more modest cultural program without these components was slated to fit within the historic Plaza House and Vickery-Brunswick buildings.
2. Lobby Addition The necessity for dedicated lobby space and public restroom program to service the galleries and outdoor plaza assembly function required additional square footage that could not be easily configured within the historic structures. The lobby addition at the rear of the historic structures established the formal entry for the project. Its modernist form, massing, and resulting construction were developed to be historically compatible with the historic structures.
3. Historic Rehabilitation: The Plaza House and Vickery Brunswick Building The challenges of providing programmable museum quality gallery space within the two 19th century unreinforced masonry buildings were many. Those challenges included structural upgrades, mechanical distribution, plumbing counts, acoustical separations, legal egress, and ADA accessibility. Through careful planning in the construction document phase, compatible improvements and interventions were strategically implemented within the historic shell and remaining interior character defining features.
4. Color and Material Coordination The scale of a successful project requires attention at all scales. At La Plaza de Cultura Y Artes, the importance placed upon the detail, as well as the fit and finish of the project is as important as those considerations made at the macro scales of site and building planning. Using historic color references enabled us to establish a framework that informed decisions with respect to color and material composition as well as implementation on site.
5. La Tienda & Main Street Entry After the Tenant Improvement and Addition at LaPlaza de Cultura Y Artes was completed, additional programming work including gallery exhibition design and bookstore/retail space was necessary. The approach for post occupancy interventions should resonate with the institution’s mission while acknowledging the historic structure in which it resides.
News from SWCA Environmental Consultants
Grave Concerns:
Keeping the LA Plaza Project on Track As featured in Vol. 14, No. 1, 2014 of SWCA’s newsletter The Wire By John Dietler On a warm January day in Los Angeles in 2011, protesters surrounded a construction site and demanded that all work come to a halt. The construction of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes (the Plaza of Culture and Arts) — a Mexican-American cultural center in the historic heart of Los Angeles — had been under way since the previous fall. The planned center, which was developed at the direction of the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation, included the adaptive reuse of historic buildings and new construction on land owned by the County of Los Angeles. It was to include museum space, a performing arts center, and outdoor classroom space. The protest centered on the discovery of more than 100 graves in the midst of construction, revealing that the site contained a substantial portion of Los Angeles’ earliest cemetery. Most scholars believed that the graves — which included the founding generation of the United States’ second-largest city — were moved when the cemetery was closed in 1844. When the media picked up the story, the ensuing public interest led to the
realization that the treatment of the excavated remains was subject to federal law rather than state and local law as previously thought. The discovery of the graves, the outcry of groups representing the descendants of those buried in the cemetery, and the application of a new and complex set of regulations brought the project to a standstill. The excavated human remains were placed in a secure, non-public county facility for safekeeping and the dig site was covered. A new approach was needed.
A Regulatory Balancing Act The LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation hired SWCA in the spring of 2011 to organize a series of consultation meetings. SWCA worked closely with federal and state authorities, including the National Park Service and the California Office of Historic Preservation, to navigate the regulatory environment. While the project was permitted under the California Environmental Quality Act, the use of federal funding triggered Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The county’s possession of human remains — including an unknown number of Native American remains — triggered the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Because the remains had not been studied after being excavated, and because a large number of federally recognized and unrecognized tribes were potentially affiliated with this urban cemetery, the application of these laws was far from straightforward. SWCA organized large group meetings, informal meetings, formal government-to-government consultation, and a presentation at the National NAGPRA Committee Meeting. The top priority identified by nearly every party engaged in consultation was the reburial of the remains at the earliest possible date. Because reburial under federal law would have required a lengthy process, the National NAGPRA Committee ruled that reburial under state law, as requested by the county and several interested parties, was permissible. Other priorities established through consultation included determining the precise boundaries of the historic cemetery, establishing a memorial marker at the cemetery, preparing an archaeological summary report documenting the cemetery, and creating a management plan that ensures long-term protection of the site. Clockwise from top left: grounds of the former Plaza Church Cemetery ca. 1895 (Los Angeles Public Library: C.C. Pierce & Co. Photographers); Plaza Church postcard, John Hughes photo (Wikipedia); 1873 map of the old portion of the city surrounding the plaza (Huntington Digital Library: Solano-Reeve collection).
The Wire Research, Analysis, and Reburial In an off-site laboratory (in the presence of monitors representing Native American and Hispanic descendant groups) SWCA conducted full non-destructive analysis of nearly 3,000 items from the historic cemetery and prepared the materials for reburial in the precise locations from which they were removed. The laboratory work was coupled with archival research into the cemetery and people who were laid to rest there. The analysis revealed that the cemetery was used from about 1820 to 1844, and that it had been heavily disturbed in the intervening 170 years. The remains were shown to include Native Americans, identified by their distinctive tooth characteristics and the prevalent term “Indio” in the burial journals, as well as people of European descent and mixed heritage. Burial records indicate that the people buried in the cemetery were affiliated with more than a dozen missions, stretching from San Francisco Bay to central Baja California. The graves displayed typical mid-19th century Catholic burial practices. At the conclusion of the analysis, the team carefully placed each set of human remains and artifacts back in the precise location from which it was excavated, reburying the city’s founders in April 2012 with Catholic and Native American blessings. Following the reburial, SWCA conducted further research to establish the boundaries of the cemetery within the LA Plaza property. Using historic maps, ground penetrating radar data, and archaeological excavation, we established a “no-dig zone” on the property enclosed and protected by a permanent fence.
protecting the cemetery. Ongoing consultation with the stakeholders will ensure that future uses of the property are in line with the needs of the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes Foundation, the County of Los Angeles, descendant communities, and neighbors.
With the cemetery successfully delineated, the remainder of the project was able to go forward.
Overcoming Challenges for a Successful Conclusion
The LA Plaza project was challenging for everyone involved. The raw emotions exposed by the unearthing of the historic graves were not easily soothed, and the desires of the large and diverse group of stakeholders often conflicted with one another, making the path forward far from clear. In the end, patience and persistence throughout the consultation process were the keys to finding successful solutions. While it was clear at the outset of the project that it would be difficult to please all parties involved, early consultation revealed that there were several common themes to the needs of the stakeholders. All parties agreed that reburying the remains as quickly as possible while complying with the relevant regulations was absolutely critical. By clarifying stakeholder priorities and a regulatory framework early in the consultation process, we were able to conduct the necessary scientific analyses and restore the site, bringing the project to a successful conclusion. v
For more information on our LA Plaza work, contact John Dietler at
[email protected].
Creating a Memorial In the summer of 2013, the site of the historic cemetery was established as a memorial garden filled with native plants. It is visible to the public as a place of commemoration and education, and it is permanently protected from further harm. To honor those buried at the site, the fence is inscribed with large words evoking family, history, and respect. The words are written in five languages, reflecting the multicultural population of the city that built the cemetery. In addition to Spanish and English, the fence contains words in the native California languages Luiseño, Gabrielino, and Acjachemen. Signs placed around the fence detail the history of the cemetery, including its rediscovery, disturbance, and restoration. With the cemetery successfully delineated, the remainder of the project was able to go forward without fear of further impacting one of the city’s most important archaeological sites. Adding the cemetery to the National Register district and writing a Historic Properties Treatment Plan completed the process of memorializing and
The LA Plaza church cemetery is now protected as a memorial garden (photos by SWCA).
Sample Mitigation Measures for a Non-federal Project MM1: Retain a Qualified Archaeologist. The applicant shall retain a qualified archaeologist, defined as an archaeologist who meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for professional archaeology, to carry out all mitigation measures related to archaeological and historical resources. MM2: Pre-construction Worker Training. Prior to the commencement of construction activities, at the project kickoff, the selected qualified archaeologist or their designee will provide a briefing to construction personnel to provide information on regulatory requirements for the protection of cultural resources. As part of this training, construction personnel will be briefed on proper procedures to follow should unanticipated cultural resources discoveries be made during construction. Workers will be provided contact information and protocols to follow if inadvertent discoveries are made. Additionally, workers will be shown examples of the types of cultural resources that would require notification of the project archaeologist. If necessary, the project archaeologist can create a training video, PowerPoint presentation, or printed literature that can be shown to new workers and contractors to avoid continuous training throughout the life of the project. MM3: Construction Monitoring for Archaeological Resources. Prior to the issuance of a grading permit, a qualified archaeological monitor shall be retained to monitor all ground-disturbing activities within 100 m of any significant or potentially significant archaeological site, and to conduct any additional monitoring that may be required as stipulated in the archaeological treatment plan. The duration and timing of the monitoring shall be determined by the qualified archaeologist in consultation with the lead agency. The archaeological monitor will work under the supervision of the qualified archaeologist. MM4: Inadvertent Discoveries. If unanticipated buried cultural deposits are encountered during any phase of project construction, all construction work within 20 m (60 feet) of the deposit shall cease and the qualified archaeologist shall be consulted to assess the find. If the resources are determined to be Native American in origin, the project archaeologist will consult with the project proponent and the lead agency to begin Native American consultation procedures. As part of this process, it may be determined that a Native American monitor will be required. If the discovery is determined to be not significant in consultation with the lead agency, work will be permitted to continue in the area. If, in consultation with the lead agency, a discovery is determined to be significant, a mitigation plan should be prepared and carried out in accordance with applicable guidelines. If the resource cannot be avoided, a data recovery plan should be developed to ensure collection of sufficient information to address archaeological and historical research questions, with results presented in a technical report describing field methods, materials collected, and conclusions. Any cultural material collected as part of an assessment or data recovery effort should be curated at a qualified facility. Field notes and other pertinent materials should be curated along with the archaeological collection. MM5: Discovery of Human Remains. If human remains are discovered, State of California Health and Safety Code Section 7050.5 stipulates that no further disturbance shall occur until the County Coroner has made a determination of origin and disposition pursuant to PRC Section 5097.98. The Los Angeles County Coroner and the lead agency must be notified of the find immediately. If the human remains are determined to be prehistoric, the Coroner will notify the Native American Heritage Commission, which will determine and notify a Most Likely Descendant (MLD). The MLD will complete the inspection of the site within 48 hours of notification and may recommend scientific removal and nondestructive analysis of human remains and items associated with Native American burials.
SWCA Environmental Consultants, 9/3/15