In the continuing effort to remake Grand Avenue, home of the Music Center and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, there now comes talk of a plan to demolish the existing Stanley Mosk Courthouse, located on the corner of First and Grand, to make way for a park that would combine with land already set aside for a 16-acre park in the corridor between the Music Center and Los Angeles City Hall. In addition, the County of Los Angeles is considering demolition of the Hall of Administration, adjacent to the proposed park area, to provide additional open space in the city center.
This would be a good move and add considerably to the attraction of downtown, which is currently undergoing a revitalization that includes the conversion of many older buildings into lofts and other residences. The proposed park would come to the edge of First and Grand, diagonally across the intersection from the concert hall and provide a perfect setting for it that doesn’t exist right now. Frank Gehry has said in the past that the courthouse and surrounding buildings are close to the end of their useful lives (only 40 years!) and with their seismic and asbestos problems they’re ready for the trash heap.
Now all that’s left to do (and it is a major and difficult step full of bureaucratic red tape) is for the city and county to figure out the land swap deal and deal with the costs of moving the courthouse and county administration. I don’t have any doubt that it can be accomplished since Eli Broad is in charge of the major plan. He has transformed downtown already by being the lynchpin in the building of Walt Disney Concert Hall, which has been the vital first step in making downtown Los Angeles into an exciting and vital place to live, instead of a ghost town devoid of any life after 6pm.