Agence Ter and Team wins Pershing Square Renew to redesign DTLA's oldest public park

Pershing Square Renew revealed Agence TER and Team as the winner of the Pershing Square Renew Competition today. The winning team won the jury's favor out of four big-name finalists, who presented their final proposals late last month. Spearheaded by City Councilman Jose Huizar, the competition sought the most fitting proposal to revive Downtown Los Angeles' Pershing Square, the oldest public park in the area.

The winning consortium is led by French landscape practice Agence Ter, whose work is largely based in Europe. Agence Ter collaborated with L.A.-based firms like SALT Landscape Architects, Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning, Rachel Allen Architecture, as well as arts programming organization Community Arts Resources LA.

The winning team envisioned the new Pershing Square as a plaza-park hybrid that would clear out the walls, ramps, and other such barriers along Pershing Square's perimeter, and transform the Square into an open rectangular lawn. Other elements include a “smart canopy” that provides shade during the day and lights up at night, a reflection pool, and new gardens and grassy lawns.

The winning proposal “balances notions of a park and a square, hardscape and green lawn, sun and shade, and metropolitan and local. The main project elements...are each specific, yet with very different expressions and articulations of this continuous surface idea,” as mentioned on the PSR competition website.

“Because we believe that too much topography and interrupted sight lines are blocking public life, we have created a transparent, democratic and accessible space connected to its immediate context and [is] resonant across the entire city. A radical flatness,” said Agence Ter founder and director Henri Bava during the team's live presentation (video linked below).

In the coming months, the proposal will undergo further developments, and the public will be welcome to provide more feedback. The city's Department of Recreation and Parks has already allotted $1 million for immediate improvements of Pershing Square, and more will be gathered from public and private sources. According to KPCC, Councilman Huizar stated that the new park scheme could be unveiled in 2019 — if plans pull through, that is.

Full list of the winning team:

• Agence Ter Landscape Urbanists
• SALT Landscape Architects
• Deborah Murphy Urban Design + Planning
• Kelly Shannon - RUA, Landscape Urbanism Consultant
• Community Arts Resources LA, Urban Programming
• Rachel Allen Architecture
• Pentagram, Branding
• Still Room, Wayfinding and Graphic Design
• Leo Villareal, Light Artist
• Fehr & Peers, Transportation Consultants
• KPFF, Structural / Civil Engineers
• M-E Engineering, Mechanical / Electrical / Plumbing Engineers
• Lighting Design Alliance, Architectural Lighting Design

Check out a video of Agence Ter's live presentation and Bustler's previous coverage in the links below.

You can also find the team's full proposal here.