Elysian Valley River

Elysian Valley, also known as Frogtown, is a neighborhood within Central Los Angeles, California, adjoining the Los Angeles River. Alongside FoLAR, Sherwood served as the site’s civil engineer and conducted a feasibility study which explored possible flood protection and landscape integrated stormwater design for the redevelopment of Elysian Valley. This Feasibility Study was intended to underscore the client’s opportunity to utilize, feature, and benefit from the unique and substantial natural resource offered by the Elysian Valley, and to highlight alternatives in a comprehensive narrative that is supported technically. The goals were as follows:

• Review and understand LA River flood risk and channel capacity
• Design strategies to capture the 100-yr storm within the channel while expanding ecosystem services of the river and encouraging access
• Propose a community based kit of distributed solutions for localized flooding and calculate their respective impact for future implementation in the river-city ecosystem
• Envision a re-calibrated city infrastructure to improve flood risk management and prepare for climate change

Our team worked with the client, various city agencies and a talented design team to protect and enhance the resources, while leveraging their value as integrated community opportunities.