Park to open a panoramic window on L.A.
The history of preserving open space in the Los Angeles Basin, critics long have said, has been characterized by a lack of vision, as asphalt and concrete were given free run of the landscape.
Vision has won out, however, at what may be the single best vantage point in the metropolitan area, where earthmovers and workmen are laboring to create Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook State Park.
The site, on the west side of La Cienega Boulevard opposite Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, is atop a hill that rises from the basin's floor and affords an incomparable, nearly 360-degree vista of Greater L.A.
"There's nothing else that gives you that good view of the ocean and the striking views of downtown, then down to Palos Verdes, all the way out to Point Mugu and the Santa Susana Mountains," said Travis Longcore, director of urban ecological research at USC's Center for Sustainable Cities. "It's out there in the middle of the flat plain, sort of equidistant from downtown, the Santa Monica Mountains and the ocean, and that's what makes it so interesting."
On a recent morning at the site, as ranks of clouds advanced over the ocean toward a bright sun, the gathering gloom above the sea contrasted with the glinting windows of downtown's office towers. The Santa Monica Mountains across the basin floor to the north were half in sun, half in shade. Only a small southeast section of the panorama was intruded upon; there, the hills of the Hahn park rise to 480 feet, about 60 feet higher than the overlook site.
The high points in Hahn, however, don't offer nearly as sweeping a vista. "The eastern ridgeline in Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area is higher, but the overlook is at the toe of the hills," said David McNeill, executive director of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, which played a major role in acquiring the new site.
"It sticks out farther to the north," McNeill said. "Baldwin Hills is in the center of the fishbowl. You can go to Palos Verdes and see one way. You can go to the Hollywood Hills and see one way. But this rises from the middle of the urban environment."
Through the efforts of the conservancy and other agencies, the state acquired the 68-acre onetime oil field in 2000 for $41.1 million, then the highest per-acre price ever paid for open space in the metropolitan area. (It was eclipsed by the $30 million the state paid the next year for the 32-acre cornfield site near Chinatown.) The purchase had to be hurried because the previous owners were already grading the site for the 230-home Vista Pacifica development, which nearby residents had battled for years in the courts.
