West Hollywood Picks Design Firm for WeHo Park

West Hollywood will hire the Irvine-based architecture firm LPA Inc. to undertake the second phase of the redesign of West Hollywood Park.

Phase two includes building a recreation center with a gymnasium and rooftop swimming pool in the space where the El Tovar parking lot currently sits, as well as creating a new children’s playground area, expanding the amount of green space in the park and creating a West Hollywood AIDS monument. Phase two would also see the demolition of the West Hollywood Park Auditorium and its adjacent swimming pool area.

LPA Inc. was one of three firms commissioned to present designs for the park during a council subcommittee meeting held in early December. Council members John Duran and John Heilman sat on that committee along with five other people.

While the designs LPA showed there won it the contract, Heilman emphasized that they aren’t the final designs for the park.

“We were not picking specific designs, we were picking a design team,” he said.

The council and city staffers will now begin working with LPA on the specific designs. Councilmember Jeffrey Prang asked that they try to work a “multipurpose ball field” into the designs, noting that there is no place in the city for people to play baseball, softball or soccer.

There once was a baseball field in the northern portion of West Hollywood Park, but it was paved over for a parking lot in 2009 when construction began on the new library. When the first phase of the park redesign was completed in 2012, that parking lot was eliminated in favor of the open grassy area and the present basketball courts.

The city has committed $80 million to the second phase of the park redesign. Of that, $65 million will go to construction costs and $12 million will to “soft costs” like paying LPA and other consultants plus paying Heery International for its construction oversight services. Another $3 million will be spent on furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new building.

The city plans to sell bonds to pay for these costs. Heilman suggested the city could also solicit money from private donors to pay for part of the costs, much like it did when financing the new library.