The Slauson Connect Recreation Center converts an abandoned rail right-of-way and brownfield site into a community asset featuring a youth development center and public park. The City and the County of Los Angeles have partnered to create side-by-side amenities to help revitalize the historic Slauson corridor by activating this abandoned railway with a net zero carbon and net zero energy landmark building that demonstrates social equity and environmental justice in underserved South Los Angeles.
The project will serve as a community oasis that offers a place of history and social activity, while being more broadly connected to the city along Metro’s Bicycle Path Network, as part of the Rail to River Active Transportation Corridor. The site is an 81-feet x 1,250-feet lot. 31 feet of the site will be dedicated to Metro’s bikeway and the remaining 50-feet strip will house the building and a 2-acre public park. The site plan design integrates the two sites, so that they function as one civic place.
Envisioned as a “youth development hub,” the 15,900 square feet Center will have a mix of childcare, afterschool, recreation programs, and a 4,000 square foot intensive roof garden. The Childcare Center will occupy the first floor, organized along a double-loaded hallway with childcare indoor/outdoor classrooms on the south, and support services to the north. Each classroom has direct access to an outdoor play area, bringing natural ventilation and natural light into the space. Afterschool and recreation programs occupy the second floor, where they open onto an exterior terrace facing Slauson Avenue.
A multipurpose classroom and drought tolerant roof garden occupy the third floor. The extensive roof garden with drought tolerant and native planting, terraces with trellis shading and outdoor activity space and a multipurpose classroom shaded by a large metal fabric façade screen with building signage that will be illuminated at night, provides a vantage point for views along the Slauson Corridor.
A two-story high exterior “urban porch” acts as the main entrance to the building. An exterior feature stair with seating for street performances/movie nights provides for a place of gathering next to the access to the second-floor classrooms. The main lobby to the Childcare Center and the elevator is also accessed off this space. The linear organization of the building is a direct result of the long narrow proportions of the site.
Parking accessed off Normandie Ave will feature a shading canopy with Solar Photovoltaic arrays generating enough solar power to offset the building demand. The structure will provide shade to parking as well as during community events anticipated in the parking area. The park will include a childcare playground, a discovery garden with nature interpretation, an interpretive trail presenting local history of the Slauson rail corridor, picnic tables and seating, and native planting with shade trees.
The building is designed to utilize factory-built modular construction to deliver cost-effective and energy efficient spaces and to address the limited construction access available on the long, narrow site on a busy street. The building is organized with a module size that balances transportation access needs with space planning requirements. The design creates abundant open space opportunities for activities, both in the building and on the site, which reduces construction costs and the need for additional interior areas.
Category:Green ArchitectureYear:2025Location: Los Angeles, California, USAArchitects:Paul Murdoch ArchitectsDesign Team:Paul Murdoch, Milena Murdoch, and Eric CunninghamClient:Bureau of Engineering, City of Los Angeles
