Canon · 21st Century (2000–present)

Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP)

2007/2022 · United States · North America · Ecological, landscape-led, and resilience planning · Planned by City of LA; USACE; Gehry Partners (update)
Watershed open-space strategy map from the 2007 Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, showing the river spine and green network across the LA basin (City of Los Angeles).
Watershed open-space strategy map from the 2007 Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan, showing the river spine and green network across the LA basin (City of Los Angeles). · copyrighted · City of Los Angeles, LA River Revitalization Master Plan (2007); via Studio-MLA

Core idea

Ecological restoration and public realm along 32 miles

Why it matters

Signature urban river revival in car-centric region

Description

The Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (2007, expanded 2022) sets a long-term framework to transform 51 miles of concrete flood channel into a connected corridor of parks, habitat, and public space while maintaining flood control.

Significance

The LA River plan is a landmark of landscape-led, ecological infrastructure thinking in a car-defined city, reimagining hardened flood infrastructure as a living, multi-benefit civic spine — and grappling with equity and displacement.

What became of it

Partly realised: an adopted, evolving framework that has guided incremental restoration, bike-path and park projects along the river, though large-scale ecological restoration remains long-term and incomplete.

Critique

Progress has been slow and fragmented across multiple jurisdictions, and restoration efforts raise concerns about flood-control trade-offs and river-adjacent gentrification.

What shaped it

Plans it influenced

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.