Big Plans in the O.C.

Ken Smith won an international design competition to turn a 1,300 acre former military base in Orange County, CA into an urban park to rival Central Park in NY. His plan is ambitious, and could be sunk by politics and finances.

1 minute read

October 2, 2009, 8:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur

"To the northeast is the urban sprawl of the county's older cities. To the southwest are the newer master-planned ones. The ground is the detritus of the last century's wars; endless concrete, abandoned hangars, tumbleweeds and dirt.

"It is kind of an accident of history that all this land, in the center of a major metropolitan county, would have gone undeveloped for all this time," Agran says.

Great Park backers hope their park will be compared to Central Park, Golden Gate Park and Balboa Park."

FULL STORY: Is Great Park a soaring vision or just hot air?

Thursday, October 1, 2009 in The Los Angeles Times

Landscape Architecture California Parks Great Park

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