City of West Hollywood

 PROJECT OVERVIEW

North San Vicente Boulevard between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue is oftentimes the location for City-sponsored programming and other City-permitted events. This results in approximately 20 to 30 days of partial or full street closures each year and there are some existing challenges with this stretch of N. San Vicente Boulevard, when it is used for public gathering purposes.

The City of West Hollywood is working with renowned landscape architecture firm !melk to develop a conceptual vision for a new “shared street” that would allow for temporary, partial, or full closures on N. San Vicente Boulevard and would be designed as a micro-climate inspired ecosystem. This reimagined area would emphasize shading, resource management, and pedestrian-oriented wayfinding in support of city-sponsored or otherwise approved programs and events, permitted activities, and organized or impromptu gatherings. 

At times, N. San Vicente Boulevard experiences drivers that exceed posted speed limits. Beyond traffic safety issues, serious public health concerns – particularly during the summer – can potentially arise when individuals may spend significant time in direct sun and are subjected to effects from what is known as a “heat island” while standing on hardscape concrete and asphalt surfaces. Heat islands are generally urbanized areas that experience higher temperatures than outlying areas. Structures such as buildings, roads, and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes that include trees or water elements and water bodies.

The intent is to have a space that can provide new flexibility and transform seasonally and situationally. If carefully crafted as a “streetscape plaza,” this bookended and protected area could operate as either a programmatic extension of West Hollywood Park, as a useful companion to the forthcoming STORIES: The AIDS Monument, or as an independent civic or public event space itself. Centrally located within the City’s westside, the San Vicente Streetscape Plaza would be well buffered from a sound standpoint from residentially zoned areas nearby yet still be very walkable and in close enough proximity from the diversely scaled neighborhoods that surround it.

Initial Streetscape Concept Rendering (For illustrative purposes only, courtesy of !melk)

PREVIOUS EVENTS

• Presentation of Updated Concept Designs - Tuesday, March 7, 2023, 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. - Virtual Meeting to present updated concept designs based on community input to-date. Please click on this link for meeting presentation and discussion.

• Presentation of Initial Concept Designs - Tuesday, December 13, 2022, 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. - Virtual Meeting to present initial concept designs. Please click on this link for meeting presentation and discussion.

• Community Visioning Exercise - Saturday, October 29, 2022, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. - West Hollywood Kids Fair, West Hollywood Park Great Lawn, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd.

Documents/ Links

February 7, 2022 City Council Staff Report

For additional information, please contact Garen Yolles, City of West Hollywood Architectural and Urban Designer, at (323) 848-6827 or at gyolles@weho.org.