Share to
Earvin Magic Johnson Park Event Center
By : Paul Murdoch Architects
GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN – 14th edition
Discipline : Architecture
Categories : Public Building / Institutional Building : Silver Certification
The project is the first phase of a master plan to transform the 120-acre Earvin “Magic” Johnson Park in Willowbrook, California into a high-performance model of sustainable park design. The new event center and park demonstrate resilience and social equity through conversion of a brown field site and artificial lakes into a social, cultural and recreation activity center for the under-served community. The lake has been transformed from a concrete-lined basin to a bio-habitat using a storm water recycling system that collects runoff from both the park and adjacent 375-acre urban watershed.
A new, multipurpose community event center serves as the social and educational hub of the park and stretches alongside the restored lake. The long, narrow building is organized into a classroom zone with an exterior court and adjacent playground, a reception lobby with public entrances at the front and back, and an event hall with kitchen adjacent to a wedding lawn. The event hall can be subdivided into as many as three spaces.
A low-slung cement plaster volume, echoing the horizontality of the lake, frames interior and exterior spaces accessible from both the front and lake-side entrances. The event hall volume projects above the horizontal frame, bringing natural light to the interior and serving as a visible anchor throughout the park.
Collaboration
Landscape Architecture : MIG